Voyage
by Guard of the Heradi
Summary: "It's time this ship set sail." A series of additional and/or extended scenes from the Princess and the Farm Boy for Series 6, starting in Morocco. Will stick to canon, contains smut, heavy swearing, drug use... it's Skins, what were you expecting? R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Gonna try to keep this short: welcome to a montage of scenes based on Series 6. Episode by episode I will try to write something new to fill the gaps. I say try, because I take forever to write and edit, so don't hold me to that. Naturally kicking off with the most obvious gap of Episode 1: it's pure smut, I do apologise, but honestly... how does a virgin fuck someone's brains out on his first go? So I've tried to keep it sensual rather than sexual, do let me know if I fail abysmally. I've got a couple of ideas for scenes in Morocco, might see if I can flesh those out, and then see what Episode 2 has. Given the preview... well, who knows?**

**Bon voyage.**

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><p>In hindsight, he should have known a long time ago, but the first flicker that he had the slightest awareness of was when she punched Rider. Cos that was hot. The whole thing was hot. As his knees stung like a bitch from the sudden lack of water, he watched entranced as her temper flared, marching round the pool to face off with the rugby-tosser. Rider wasn't the only one to think of another interpretation of 'mess you up'. But as he made a silent 'oooh' as Mini's fist collided with Rider's face, he couldn't help but grin too.<p>

He should have known long before that, of course. He'd spent the whole time they'd been in Morocco admiring her tits in her bikinis. Normally being called a retarded twat would have sparked off a whole load of banter - there was so much material to go with, really. He blamed his lack of response beyond 'yeah' on the quality of her sarcasm: 'I'll check to see if my tits are still there' was a pretty good one from Mins.

That whole day was a mindfuck and a half. The drive back from the airport… no, not going there.

The whole thing was a mindfuck. This time last year, the last person he would have gone on holiday with was Minerva McGuiness. The last person to help him get laid in a goth bar would have been her. The last person he'd ever dreamed of getting stoned in the sun with was her.

The last person he thought he'd lose his virginity to was her.

Yet there he was.

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><p>She woke up that morning feeling a bit off. Never mind Liv drooling, Franky in her undies, the sound of Rider shagging some girl rather badly, or the sight of Nick's stamped arse. Once she was out into the light and air she felt better. The peace seeped in. The rollie got abandoned upon the discovery of running water, and it never occurred to her to threaten anyone to look away as she stripped her tee off.<p>

It was all so fucking simple. It was just her, and the light breeze, and the sunshine still gentle enough to not burn, and the water on her skin. She felt beautiful in that beautiful setting.

Then the sharpest feeling of it not being enough. Her own hands rubbing her skin clean didn't feel _enough_, and the clearest vision of someone else's hands on her slammed into the forefront of her mind. Freckled hands and pale arms and hairless torso. Sun-bronzed red hair in her fingers. And his cheeky grin that saw her only for the best.

So she stepped out of the water, stood for a moment, turned, climbed out of the pool and wrapped her body with her towel off the sun beds. Then she walked right into the house, knowing exactly what she wanted.

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><p>Nothing matched the early morning sun. No one else would be up, so he didn't move, basking for a while. Early mornings on the farm were what he was used to; lie-ins once he was awake were the norm though. The door opening was unexpected; Mini just wrapped in her towel, hair damp around her shoulders, was even more so. "Hey."<p>

"What'ya doing, Farm Boy?" She asked teasingly.

After a moment of considering what innocence he could pretend, he just told the truth. "Erm, well… I suppose I was seeing if my porn app will download onto this iPhone that I nicked."

She closed the door, grinning. "What, and you have no particular level of shame about that?"

He ran with it, having fun. "Err, no, I always steal from people who make me feel inferior." He clenched his mouth shut to try not to laugh out loud.

"Like who?" She asked, genuinely bemused, coming closer.

"Well, pretty much anyone, err, especially if they're rich, good-looking, and having a lot of sex."

"And that evens it out, huh?" She teased back, sitting down right next to him. Completely un-phased by her proximity, he didn't move himself, just carried on fiddling with the iPhone in his hands, before finally putting it to rest on his other side.

"Yeah, you should try it sometime." When he rolled back, finally she felt close. He could barely look at her, so he just studied his hands.

"Well, why don't you just have some sex?" She suggested innocently.

He scoffed, finally not teasing. "Yeah, don't be stupid, who would have sex with -"

That was probably the best answer to the question he didn't quite finish. Suddenly she was just there, her mouth on his, her hair falling onto his chest. Without even thinking about it he pressed his lips back against hers, his arm automatically raised to hold her, but then…

_Oh my god oh my god oh my god_

Disbelief ripped him from her before he could tell himself to not be an idiot and go with it. Or so he'd think. That sounded more plausible than the bit that continued the 'oh my god's with '_it's Mini, it's Mini, my friend Mini, what the fuck is she doing?_

"Whoa, hang on!"

"If you tell a soul, I'll fucking kill you, alright?"

There was no universe that Alo knew of where Mini would look at him like that. Like she knew exactly what she wanted. Like _he_ was what she wanted. So he pinched himself, genuinely believing that none of it was real. She laughed and grabbed his arms, pulling them apart. "Stop pinching yourself!" Oh God she was close. He could feel the weight of her chest that he'd spent their holiday staring at on his through her towel, the strength of her grip on his wrists. The 'my friend Mini' voice fizzled away, cos if she let go of him right then her absence would ache _everywhere_. "You're awake, and it's time this ship set sail."

He had one second after she stopped talking. In that second, he instinctively went with it, and when she leaned down to kiss him again, his head tilted to accept her without thinking, and his eyes flickered shut as he kissed her back. His right hand freed itself, found her back to keep her there, and for that moment when they were just chastely kissing he did not think.

The nerves kicked in when her lips left his and started descending down his body. _Oh fuck…_

"I'm awake." _Oh fuck._ "I'm awake." _Oh fuck._ "I'm awake." _Wait…_ "I'm awake." Now he believed it. "I'm awake." Oh God, this was actually real. "I'm awake…" _So real…_

Cool air hit his skin, and he breathed, trying to stay calm. Then… "Oh, my God…" He looked down, got a glimpse of the look on Mini's face, and had to look back up just to not lose his cool. "You've got to be fucking kidding."

Then he was just unbelievably happy. This was real.

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><p>Oh God. This was real. This was really fucking real.<p>

It didn't occur to her to compare in that moment, but Nick - the only guy she had any experience with - had not been this hung. He'd been alright, the Levan boy had nothing to complain about on that score, but this… this was not what she had expected. Why she hadn't expected anything, she didn't know, given her glimpse in the car yesterday. And after his 'shower'. Right up close, she suddenly felt very young, very inexperienced.

And then she heard Alo smile with relief, and ignored that feeling. She wasn't the only one doing something new. It frightened her less, knowing that he hadn't had a girl go down on him anymore than she'd ever gone down on a guy.

Cos with Nick, that had just been a major 'ew'. Right there and then… not so much.

She hadn't the foggiest idea what she was meant to be doing, but evidently what she was doing was good enough. Alo's entire body - literally his entire body - stiffened within seconds, emitting a throaty groan. Her eyes darted up to see him clutching the pillow under his head with one hand, the other gripping the sheet on the mattress. He didn't hold back the moans, no matter how much he bit his own lip. The hand holding on to the sheet unclenched and moved towards her, and for a nervous moment she thought he was going to push her head down further. Instead his hand found hers on his torso, thread his fingers through hers, and held on for dear life. Then he swore under his breath, gasped out her name, and sat up. His sudden motion made her sit up too, forgetting what she'd been doing for a moment, and then he was kissing her like she was a goddess, his arms pulling her to him.

He didn't feel like how she'd imagined earlier. He was more solid, warmer, softer. His hands however felt exactly as she'd imagined - no, better. They were on her neck, on her back, on her sides… then she realised her towel was slipping, and that if he pulled her any closer her naked breasts would be pushed against his chest.

When he did, she just wrapped her arms round his shoulders and didn't let go. It felt too good to notice anymore, or think or care.

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><p>Alo, on the other hand, could still notice and think and care about her tits. He definitely noticed her soft skin against his own, the beat of her heartbeat just out of sync with his own, her soft moans as he kissed her… her nipples tickling his chest. He could think about how he was just about holding his balance sitting up as he was, her almost in his now overly-sensitive lap. He could think how glad he was that he packed a box of condoms in his bag for good luck. He could just about to think how great it felt when he leant back into the mattress, taking her with him chest-to-chest, when she lifted her leg over to straddle him. Last thing he properly thought was how she was just wearing the towel now wrapped around her waist.<p>

He cared to not squash her as he rolled them over, settling his hips between her thighs, his body desperate to get going already. Cared enough to ignore that, and concentrate on keeping Mini moaning as he kissed her.

Her fingernails dug into his shoulders a little when he let his mouth trail down to her neck, to her chest. She shuddered when he ran his tongue over her nipple, gasped loudest when he took as much of her breast into his mouth, her back arching as his hands wandered over her skin. She was so turned on… what universe was this where Aloysius Creevey could get Minerva McGuiness so worked up he could hear her swearing under her breath? And she was turned on: he didn't remember when he'd started grinding his hips into hers, or when she started grinding back, but oh _fuck_ it felt glorious.

Speaking of what would feel glorious…

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><p>Wherever Mini's mind was, it was both right in that room, feeling <em>everything<em> that Alo was doing to her, and also somewhere else entirely. If God had created a sex heaven, she was probably there. Every inch of her body was hyper sensitive, from her curling toes to her ankles rubbing against his calves, from the sweat under her knees to his naked arse between her thighs. The very solid, very real flesh of him so close to where she increasingly wanted him to be. His soft stomach on hers, his arm supporting his weight at her side, his spare hand kneading her tit. His nose pressing against her cheek as he gasped a kiss on her mouth. The soft hairs on his back as her hands held on, sliding up and down to keep him close, dipping over his arse. And that was just the beginning of what she could feel, let alone every other sense.

Her vision, when she had her eyes open, were hazy anyway, out of focus. Every now and then all she'd see were his burning eyes and she'd shut hers again to escape his, grabbing his hair to kiss him properly. He tasted of the joint they'd had last night when they got in from the party last night, and something uniquely him, something she couldn't really describe with words, whilst his skin had the peculiar tang of the washing-up liquid the boys had used instead of shower gel the day before, mixed with sun block and weed.

As for her hearing… what she was hearing was a turn on in itself. The friction of his skin against hers, the quiet creak of the springs in the mattress, his guttural moans as his crotch pushed up into her, as though seeking already where he wanted to be too. Her own gasping breath every time his hands and mouth did something that felt _amazing_.

For instance, right now, she was already panting as she felt his free hand slid down her torso, nudge in between them, and then his finger tips seeking her clit. He kissed her at the exact moment when he slid a finger inside her, making her groan into his mouth, and one of her hands abandoned his hair to grip the pillow under her head, the edge of the mattress at her side, undecided what to hold on to. Her next gasp caught in her throat when he pulled his finger out of her and push two back in, making him stop to study her face. And then he started rubbing them slowly in and out of her, gently, watching her face, making her feel more naked than ever before.

Then she compared him to Nick. Nick had tried fingering her before, but it had never felt great. She'd blamed it on not being turned on enough by her boyfriend, instead of the honest truth that being pumped in and out to the point where she felt sore was never going to be a turn on. Nick had always started doing it too early, when she wasn't quite into it yet. Whereas this… _oh God_… it almost felt embarrassing. She'd never, ever be able to deny that she wanted this, there was absolutely no denying how good this felt. Alo would always hold that over her.

She'd always blame the tremors that went through her body on that powerless thought.

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><p>Her fingernails were starting to hurt now, they were digging into his back so much. Her body was almost shaking, she'd become so restless. He knew why; his fingers were being sporadically crushed whilst her hips jerked of their own accord. He envied the look on her face: the best kind of agony on earth. She moaned his name, her voice catching as her head rolled back with another shudder. Then all of a sudden her hand slammed down between them and grabbed his wrist, stopping his movements.<p>

"Alo… get… get inside me…"

The world froze, save for their breathing. He didn't realise he'd been breathing so hard. She reached up and kissed him gently, kissed him again until his wits came back and he kissed her back.

"Have you got a…"

Right there and then, he adored her. Adored how she bit her lip with nerves, whilst he still had his fingers inside her hot, wet body, his cock heavy between her legs, her breasts rising and falling with her breathing. Physically speaking they could only be a few inches closer, and she couldn't bring herself to say the word 'condom'. He absolutely adored her for it. He nodded, gently slid his hand out from between them, and really kissed her, screwing his eyes shut as she responded, his hips readjusting between her thighs again, her legs pulled up around his arse, opening herself up to him as their tongues danced. With his now free hand he yanked his bag closer, rummaged about for his lucky durex. He broke their kiss to tear the wrapper off, and watched in amazement as she snatched the condom out of his hand, and rolled it on him herself, unable to look him in the eye as she did.

When she put her hands on his hips to angle him into her however, she couldn't take her eyes off his face any more than he could take his off hers. Until…

_Oh fuck yes_… wanking would never be the same again. _Nothing_ could compare to this, _nothing would ever_ compare to this.

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><p><em>Shit<em>… it was fucking perfect, it was fucking perfect, it was fucking perfect… it had been a while and she could feel it, but _oh God_. Cliches about jigsaws sprang to mind, of keys fitting locks, of God's design and bollocks like that. None of that crap could really describe it. Completed jigsaws and doors opening all seemed very anti-climactic compared to this.

It felt like he was inside her _everywhere_. She could feel it everywhere. And she felt like a goddess for it. Wide-eyed and awake and _divine_.

And he wasn't even moving. His entire body had tensed and tightened. Realising, she refocused on his face again, and couldn't help but smile at the look of absolute awe in his eyes. She wrapped her arms round his shoulders and ground her hips down, grinning a little when his eyes rolled into his head and he buried his face into her neck.

And then he was moving, in and out uncertainly and unevenly, then slowly pacing, fitting into her own movements, surrendering to Nature's oldest dance routine. He listened to her moans, figuring out quickly what made her wince and moan, stopping what wasn't great and continuing what felt incredible. He was thrusting deep, gasping into her shoulder, his advances lifting her hips slightly.

It seemed to last forever, like they'd been shagging for hours. She felt so completely vulnerable, with nothing to hide behind. But that was nothing when Mini started tensing again, moaning uncontrollably, her fingers gripping his back, his hair.

She couldn't believe it. This was his first time. How… how could he…

Yes… _yes_… _fuck, yes…_

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><p>He started to lose his pace, started to lose it in general, started swearing under his breath into her neck. His fingers also dug into whatever first came to hand, her skin, the pillow under her head, the edge of the mattress, mostly just her. He could hear her moaning words, almost incoherent, nonsensical words.<p>

He had a single split second when her body curled up, her hips jerking into his, her body fire-hot and spasming around him, moaning in a real way they just don't in porn, before Nirvana took him.

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><p>Her own pleasure swept away any awareness of his. Only after the waves crashed through her body, robbing all reason out of her, did she recall his body jerking into hers too, so hard her thighs still felt it, and the throaty choke she heard as his mind went blank. Right now, his weight had collapsed onto her, and he was panting like he'd run a marathon, shaking slightly as his body slowly released the sudden tension.<p>

She didn't want to move. She didn't want him to move either, not even to shift his weight off her. She forgot about her silencing threat, forgot he was just 'Farm Boy'. Right then she wanted to keep her legs wrapped round him, keep his head in the nook of her neck, his chest pressed against hers, their breathing syncing. She ran her fingers through his hair, trailed them to his cheek as he raised his head to look at her face.

They had one second of enjoying that post-coitus serenity where they could look each other right in the eyes without feeling awkward.

And then it got awkward.

The knowledge that he'd just lost his virginity to Mini McGuiness, former Ice Queen and Bitch with a capital B, slammed through Alo's mind like a sledgehammer. It wasn't really 'that was incredible' knowledge; it was '_what the fuck_'.

And it was written all over his face. All the thousands of thoughts that race through a woman's mind after she's slept with someone for the first time got so jumbled up her mind remained silent, in shock, waiting for him to react.

He pulled out of her, rolled to the side, fiddled with the used condom. She reached down and pulled a sheet over them, feeling far too naked. They both just lay there, still catching their breath, waiting. God knows what for exactly, but they were waiting for something, anything, that would relieve the tension.

So he reached to the side, lit up a joint, took a long drag, and then offered it to her. Their eyes met, and he smiled lightly. So she smiled too, pushing down the awkward feeling in her gut, and accepted the joint. "Thanks." She said, quietly.

His eyes stayed on her as she took a drag and exhaled. He debated asking 'what for?' but thought that maybe that was too deep a question.

"What for?" He asked anyway.

She stayed quiet, took another drag, let the smoke curl out of her mouth. Then she shrugged and gestured to the joint. What could she have said, after all? Thanks for the shag? Thanks for scratching an itch? Thanks for giving me my first coital orgasm, cos Nick was never as good in bed as he thought he was? Or thanks for making her feel like the most beautiful girl in the world?

"Thanks for sniffing this out over the rotten eggs in the kitchen?"

He laughed, genuinely, the tight feeling in his stomach unknotting, and took the joint back. "Anytime, McGuiness, anytime." He took another drag, and then turned on his side to face her. "I have a question."

She took the joint back again, trying not to look like a deer in the headlights as she inhaled. What in the hell was he going to ask now? How was he? Was he a better fuck than Nick? Who had the best cock? _What_? "And I suppose I've got an answer, Farm Boy, what is it?"

"Did you have a shower this morning?" She choked on another drag. What the fuck? "Your hair's still damp." His fingers played with the ends of her hair for a moment, before letting go as though it was too intimate. She smiled in relief. She thought for a moment he was going to say she smelt of muff double plus or something.

"Guess who got the water running?" She teased, grinning proudly. She giggled as his face turned from confused to dawning boyish glee. Next thing she knew they were scrambling back into their clothes, all awkwardness forgotten, and he was racing her to the pool side where he whooped with joy at the sight of the 'barbecue pit' slowly but surely filling. Soon he was sprinting through the house rousing everyone, yelling for Rich to get his cousin's pink Speedos on.

And Mini just watched, listening, grinning as she stayed by the pool side, finishing their joint.

_If you tell a soul, I'll fucking kill you, alright?_

Crap. She'd forgotten to remind him. Hopefully the water would keep him occupied and his mouth shut until she had a chance to speak to him.

Somehow she wasn't actually worried that he would tell though, if she'd been completely honest about it. But it didn't occur to her to wonder why she felt the need to remind him anyway.

In hindsight, she should have known then too.


	2. Chapter 2

**Oooh. Thanks to all those who read the first chapter, even more thanks to those who favourited or put this on alert, and even more more thanks to those who reviewed! Here's the other bit that went through my head: the transition from Morocco back to Bristol. Slightly inspired by _Watch the Sun Come_ _Up _by Example, it's less... err... explicit, shall we say? But, it's still Skins, so plenty of naughty things. But whatever comes next, if anything, will now be based on what Monday gives us.**

**So, enjoy!**

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><p>The days passed with very little distinction. Their bags seemed packed long before they needed to be, and it was a long wait 'til check-in.<p>

For once, Rich's pessimism was right on the money. It didn't take him long in the slightest to realise Grace's talk with Matty had gone a bit long. Alo kept telling him everything was fine, clearly more interested in dancing with Mini, Nick and Rider. But then Mini noticed the local guy Liv had disappeared with had come back alone, and that Franky had vanished too. As had Matty. And Luke, and his friend Jake. At that moment, Rider pulled, so Rich dragged the rest of them back to the villa, hoping his girlfriend had gone back there, maybe to sort out whatever was going on between Franky and Matty, and maybe even Liv too. But the villa was deserted. They were all pretty damn sure they weren't that messy though...

As Rich's temper boiled with the pressure of worry and not knowing what the hell was going on, Franky turned up. God knows how, or where from; she just walked right in. Like a shell-shocked victim of a bombing. And told them all there'd been an accident.

They found Liv outside the hospital, face cut and bruised, a cigarette trembling in her hand. It took what felt like far too long to find Grace, and after they did, time seemed to have no relevance at all. She was in a coma, and her parents were on their way to transport her home.

So they waited. All those who sat in the waiting room sat in silence. Those who went outside went for nicotine and venting.

Matty did not show up. And Franky stayed in the waiting room and stayed in silence, rocking slightly, avoiding meeting anyone's eyes. She did not go out to vent.

Mini held her best friend as reality sunk into Liv that she could have died... that their best friend, the best of the trio, actually _could_ die. They sat outside and cried together for Liv's fear and relief, for fear for Grace, for Mini too, who could have been robbed of both of them. And then they went back in, holding hands, to wait.

Rich paced. When he was inside he did so in the loudest, non-vocal way possible. When he paced outside, he screamed. He blamed Matty, he blamed Franky, he blamed Luke, he blamed Grace herself, he blamed himself. Thankfully he didn't blame Alo, who stood and listened, so in shock he felt outside of it, and so could listen. He stayed and held the pieces together. Someone had to.

Nick waited. Waited for Matty to turn up, believing whole-heartedly that he would. The passing of time didn't make him wait any less. He waited for this all to be over soon, believing that it would. Tellingly, he had more faith in his brother than in the world.

Professor Blood didn't acknowledge any of them. His wife did; Sonia Blood hugged Liv and thanked her for staying with her daughter, thanked them all for staying with Grace. David Blood however just filled out the necessary paper-work, and by the time the moon was at its peak he, Sonia and Grace were gone. As was Rich, waiting at the airport for the first flight back to England, after Alo had convinced the airline this was an emergency transfer. Alo waited with him, and then drove back to the villa at dawn. He found Nick asleep on a sun bed, ridden with mosquito bites, an empty bottle of vodka on his chest, and Franky on the roof, sleeping fitfully on Grace's side of the mattress. Liv he spotted in her own room, curled up foetally, and Mini... Mini was awake in his room, waiting. They didn't say a thing, just curled up together in his bed, and slept. They slept badly, but they slept. Every time one of them woke, it was to find they'd shifted closer together: his face was buried in her shoulder, her body turned towards his. They woke in the afternoon to find Liv still sleeping, Franky gone, and a note from Nick to say he'd gone to find Matty. They guessed Franky had done the same, without a note. They never really found out.

Just then, Rider got back, grinning like a conquering hero, bragging about the shag he picked up at the beach party. That felt like so long ago now.

"Where the fuck is everyone?"

Mini told the story once, and only once. "Luke tried to steal Franky away, so Matty, Liv and Grace went after them. Matty lost control of the car, and there was an accident. Grace is in a coma, and has been flown back to Bristol by her parents. Rich has gone to be with her, and no one's seen Matty so Nick is looking for him right now. That's where everyone is, Rider." And then she disappeared back into the house. Alo, feeling unable to contribute any further, watched her go, ignored Rider being a dick, and followed her. He found her in his room again, and hugged her as she burst into tears.

He didn't remember much of the rest of the day. No, he remembers that he cried too, he just didn't let Mini see. They ate, at some point, who knew what. Nick got back after dark. Franky was back by the time they woke the next morning, no one saw her come in. She'd vanished again by the time anyone checked up on her. She did that for the rest of the week, returning to the villa only to sleep, like a cat.

For the days after the crash the gang hired the bikes again to search for Matty. Liv went with Nick, Alo with Mini, leaving Rider at the villa to 'get stoned like a whore in a burqa', in case Matty came back. Mini found them a better map than the back of a WHSmith refill pad cover. Mini, control freak that she was, had surprisingly good navigation skills, so, whilst Liv and Nick searched the places they knew, Mini and Alo got lost.

There was a logic behind it. Nick reckoned his brother would go somewhere he could be found. Liv reckoned he would get as lost as possible. Whilst Liv wanted to get lost too and find Matty, she wouldn't have been able to read North, South, East and West and so get home again herself. The girls didn't think it was a good idea for just the two of them to go by themselves, so Alo's keen nose went with Mini the girl Scout, and Liv reluctantly went with Nick.

None of them found anything. Alo and Mini did get to see some of the most stunning places, but that was it.

It was awkward. It wasn't exactly a post-coital awkwardness, it was post-trauma awkwardness. One of their best friends had almost been killed; how could they celebrate being alive right now?

After Alo's tongue in her bikini bottoms lead to a rather feverous shag against the wall round the back of the pisser at the beach party, they'd been fine. She'd even made out with him after, riding the post-orgasmic high, before heading back to dance. He even danced with her, reminding her of when they danced at his farm party last year. He told her to come back to his room that night. And then shit went down.

She did go to his room that night. They just didn't do what they had both expected to do, which was shag like rabbits all through the night.

Since, they'd got on their bikes and searched for their friend, worried for his safety. When they talked, they talked about that, about what Liv had told them about Luke, and the dope under the truck. Mini threatened to kill Matty when they found him. Eventually it became _if_ they found him.

They didn't talk about 'them'. Whatever 'them' was now. They barely touched. They both knew that if they did, just the slightest brush of skin, they'd completely forget what was happening around them and not be able to stop.

Their last day, they were all a bit clueless about what to do. Nick packed Matty's bag, maybe as a kind of last act of hope. Liv visited her Moroccan friend one last time, and drove back to the wreck of the car, just to check one last time whether Matty was haunting it. Rider was determined to finish off the last baggy of weed that Luke never came back to claim, but had managed to pick up through the week that his carefree attitude wasn't remotely welcome, and so crashed someone else's villa to get high. Franky's bag were ready, though she herself still hadn't really been seen at all.

Alo vanished too. At dawn he rolled a couple of joints, stuck them in his pocket, and walked out into nowhere. His head was filled with crap. And he was in agony with frustration. He swore it was easier before he got laid.

Mini found him under a tree in the shade a mile away. She just sat next to him, smiled, and stared at their surroundings. When she next turned to look at him, he was already leaning in to kiss her. The next moment all turned to madness, and they were clawing each other out of what clothes they needed to shed, and then he was inside her, thrusting deep like she liked. Then he went off like a virgin, unable to hold back from how good it felt to be inside her, _really _inside her. The feel of his spunk inside her felt completely alien to her, and was a very sobering alarm call.

"Shit, Mins, I'm sorry," he said when his breath came back to him. Mini shushed him, tightened her legs round his hips, kissed his neck. He tightened his grip of her for a moment, settled against her body, barely having the will to move anyway. "Mini?"

"Hmm?" She ran her hands over the back of his shirt.

"Are you on the Pill?" Her hands stopped. She could feel his eyes on her, waiting for the answer. She shook her head. Alo nodded, letting that sink in. Then he peered up at her again. "Do you need... err... do you want me to pick up the morning-after pill for you?"

It took a second for her to realise what he'd said. When she stared at him in amazement, he just looked so nervous. In that moment Mini absolutely adored him. She smiled and kissed him, kissed him to swallow the squeak of happiness she really wanted to let out. It was the oddest thoughtful thing anyone had ever offered to do for her. She then shook her head again. "S'ok. I think I'd have to pick that up myself anyway. And it's the wrong end of the month. I'll take it just in case when we get back to Bristol. Can you even get the morning-after pill in Morocco?"

Alo smiled back, relieved, and shrugged. Then he frowned. "I don't have to worry about... I mean... you're... erm..."

She adored him less then. "No, Farm-Boy, I don't have any STDs. Do _I_ need to worry? Can you catch syphilis from sheep?" Mini threw at him, thoroughly rattled. She had actually been tested, after Nick cheated on her, 'cos... well... Liv got around, to be frank. All clear.

He rolled his eyes, pinched her lightly, and pulled out of her, rolled to her side, yanking his shorts up as she pulled her knickers back on under her sarong. He then grinned and pinched her nose lightly, making her pull a face at him. She couldn't stay annoyed with him for long. Ever. "You're a snob, McGuinness."

Her eyes widened at his frankness, at the grin on his face. He leant on his elbow, resting his temple on his palm. "Gee, thanks, Farm-Boy."

"I mean, seriously, I'm 'not worthy' of you?"

She swallowed uncomfortably. That hadn't been a nice thing to say. It had been a stupid thing to say, really. But by the spark in his eye, she knew he - thankfully - hadn't taken her seriously. Alo knew her well enough to know that her bark was worse than her bite: if she was really, _really_ pissed at you, she said less. So she let it slide, grinned too, stuck her tongue out at him. "You love it, Ginger-minge."

He chuckled, leant in, and kissed her gently. He ran the tip of his finger down her front, right down the centre, to roughly above her heart, and stopped abruptly. He studied her face for a moment, pensive.

"What do you want, Mini?"

As always when he asked serious questions, she couldn't look him in the eye. She also didn't know how to answer him honestly. She didn't even know, honestly. "I quite fancy some strawberry ice cream." He raised an eyebrow at her. She sighed. "Do I have to want anything, Farm-Boy?"

He pulled a thoughtful face. "Well, yes. You're you." He pulled a hair out of the corner of her mouth, let his hand rest on her cheek and then cleared his throat. "So, you don't want anyone to know?" He waited for her to concur, and nodded his head when she nodded hers too. Then he frowned. "Wait, does that nod mean you do want people to know, or yes, you don't?" She chuckled. "Cos I don't want to die because I made a mistake."

She elbowed him for teasing, smiling though. "No, you twat, just keep shush!" She told him, grinning as he laughed.

"Okay!" He slowly stopped laughing, and just smiled. "Okay. But... what..." He stopped, rubbed his face, and started again. "I always thought you were an all-or-nothing kind of girl. Not somewhere-in-between. Now, clearly whatever the hell we're doing isn't nothing, and you don't want anything public so... whereabouts do you want this in-between? 'Cos I think we've already cleared up that you like having your brains banged out."

Mini just looked at him like a deer in the headlights. She didn't know. She just didn't know. Did she really have to know anything at this point? She'd slept with him in the first place because... well... essentially... because she felt like it. That was the same right now. She had no idea what she felt like doing later, and that's what his conversation was about: what they were doing later.

Receiving no answer, Alo just carried on talking. "I mean, say right, if I actually met another girl who wanted to -" Her thumb on his lips silenced him. She leant in and kissed him, silencing him properly.

"I don't know. Okay? I don't know." She told him. "Can't we... just figure it out as we go along? And when I feel like holding hands in class or singing about it from the rooftops I'll let you know, okay?"

The last bit she didn't really mean seriously, but she said one thing Alo thought was interesting: 'when'. Not 'if'. He was about to call her on it, but smiled and kept silent instead. He'd keep that one for another day.

"Fair deal." He said, smiling behind her thumb, and then leant back in and kissed her, as though sealing the deal. Then... "You know, we could do a bit more 'figuring out' now..." He trailed kisses down her neck. "Cos, we've already done the 'oops' once now, and I kinda owe you an orgasm anyway -"

Next thing he knew he was on his back, having the hell snogged out of him. "Just shut up and shag me already, Zesty-Balls."

So he did, several times, whilst the shade of the tree stayed over them, on her cast-off sarong spread over the floor. Then, as the sun started to set on their last day, the last of the joints smoked, they decided to sneak back to the villa, grab one of the bikes, and go into town and get some strawberry ice cream. The guy who served him mistook Mini as his girlfriend; Alo didn't bother correcting him.

It went unsaid that no one was watching, not anyone they knew anyway. So, no one would know that they wandered around Marrakech with Alo's arm slung over Mini's shoulders, or that she had her arm wrapped round his lower back. No one would see them bantering like they always did, laughing carefree, close and happy. They had one night when they could pretend that they weren't just fuck-buddies, that they had nothing to figure out, that this was just about sex. Or whatever bullshit they told themselves, or rather, Mini told herself. After riding him on the dry, hot earth with the breeze on her skin, after spooning naked in the sun mellow from the pot, she was feeling tactile. It felt great, being held, being claimed. Like the best of holiday romances men sung about, when everything seemed easy, when tomorrow simply didn't exist, simply wasn't an issue.

The black night descended, the God-fearers went to bed, and the Godless came out to play. Alo's party nose twitched, and Mini laughed as he grabbed her hand and dragged her through the streets, to the left, to the right, sniffing a good one out. When they found it the door was open, and no one seemed to notice or care that they didn't have the faintest idea who Alo or Mini were, that they were still in their day clothes, and just left the two of them to dance.

If you could call it dancing. Dry-humping might have been a more accurate word. So they did what they were told, got a room, and carried on not caring about tomorrow.

They were still up at dawn, so tired they might as well have been hungover. They found the bike again, drove back slowly, Mini snoozing as she held on. Liv was gathering the last of their things from around the pool when they drove up, and she helped wake Mini up again, told her blonde friend she'd packed for her, asked where they'd been. Thankfully Mini was so tired she barely registered the question and couldn't feel paranoid, so Alo answered for them with a casual shrug. "Felt like having one last day on holiday, drove out to the hills, got a bit lost, found a fucking ace party."

Liv smiled, unsuspecting. "Sounds wicked. Sorry I missed it."

He shrugged again, unable to meet her eye. He was glad she missed it; he'd just had the best twenty-four hours of his life. Alo had one last swim in the pool to wake himself up, then shoved his stuff in his bag, and started heading home. Tomorrow had come.

Liv's local friend drove them back to airport, Liv, Nick and Rider in the back talking quietly about how shit term was going to be, whilst Alo and Mini slept in the back seats. Franky sat at the very front, still in silence. The tiredness helped at the airport during the queue for check-in, the queue for getting through Passport Control, waiting in Duty-Free, queuing at the gate: it meant they couldn't be awkward because they were too knackered to think. It barely phased them when they ended up sitting next to each other, with Franky in the window seat. They just went back to sleep again, missed the safety demonstration, missed take-off, only just woke up when they landed. Lord knows what Franky thought about Alo's shoulder being Mini's cushion, or the top of Mini's head Alo's.

Being back in England however, finally a little more rested, was another day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Anyone else completely head-fucked by tonight's episode? Shit... I had to switch to E4+1 just to check it actually happened. And you know, to see it again anyway.**

**Fuck a duck and shag a sheep.**

**So... onwards. Here's the first lot that's sprung forth, the rest will follow soon enough undoubtedly. I'm on holiday this week, so will be working on this amongst other shit. A good chunk of this was written before I saw Episode 2, so it has a very different flavour to what actually went down. But I said I was going to stick to canon, so sticking to it. Just aiming for the gaps.**

**Oh, and if the end bit doesn't ring in character (you'll know which bit I mean when you get to it), feel free to let me know. Still gonna run with it anyway.**

* * *

><p>"Mins?"<p>

Mini creaked open an eye, and groaned. Not in a good way. She had been asleep, quite happily asleep. Her body clock told her it was quite a bit earlier than she was used to in the morning, despite the sunlight shimmering through the curtains, turning her room orangey pink. She was lying on her front, naked as the day she was born, facing the annoyance that had woken her up. "Hmm?"

"I think something's wrong."

"Uh-huh." She shut her eye again. "What is it, Farm-Boy?"

"We didn't have sex last night."

This time she opened both eyes. He actually looked a bit freaked out by that. "Right." She shut her eyes again. It was too early.

"Why didn't we have sex last night?"

She sighed. "Because last night you came round with the strongest weed we've ever had and you couldn't get it up, and I was telling you about how awesome toast is, remember?"

Silence. "Ah." She could almost hear him blinking, hear the cogs grind into place. "Oh, yeah." She felt him lift his head off the pillow, and lift the duvet. "Mins?" She didn't respond. "I've got it up now -"

Without bothering to open her eyes again she lashed out at him, whacking him square in the chest, making him laugh. He grabbed her hand that was blindly trying to find his face so she could slap him, and pulled her into an embrace, making her groan unhappily at being moved so unceremoniously. She immediately settled in anyway, his warm chest proving a much nicer pillow, his arms a better duvet. She shuffled closer, put her thigh between his and smiled a bit. "Oh yes, so you are."

He chuckled, stroked her long hair over her back. "Alo?" He nudged her forehead with his chin as a response. "I really want to go back to sleep. I promise we'll shag when I wake up."

He whined like a kid deprived of its favourite toy, making her smile. "Oh. Okay." He then kissed her hair. "Okay." He pulled the duvet over the two of them, tucking her in. Then... "Can I have a wank in the meantime?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"'Cos I said so, Farm-Boy."

He grinned, pressed another kiss into her hair. "Yes ma'am."

"Damn right..."

He closed his eyes, still grinning. Next thing he knew he was waking up again and her hand was exactly where he wanted it to be.

Mini always was a woman of her word when it came to promising shagging.

* * *

><p>Alo went with her to Boots the day after they got back from Morocco. He didn't go up to the counter with her when she asked for the morning-after pill, he went and browsed the family planning section, but he sent a text first thing that morning telling her - actually telling her, rather than asking her - to meet him in town. So, to her surprise, she did.<p>

His reasoning was that this was the kind of thing Mini would have done with Liv, but as Liv didn't know and he did, he was going to be her best girl friend for the day. Of the proper lezzie variety, he teased. But he couldn't stay long 'cos he was being a good Creevey boy and needed to clear out cow shit or something. Mumgabe had actually agreed to let him go back to college after receiving his mediocre grades, as long as he kept the barns clear. So he came along for moral support, stocked up on condoms, got her a diet coke to down the pills, and teased her for the rest of the morning with her lack of knowledge of anything agricultural. So she teased him right back with his lack of knowledge of anything cultural. Then he gave her a lift back home in the van.

Well, they stopped the van on the way to crack open the box of condoms, and christen the van (neither of them knew that Nick and Liv had gotten there first). Afterwards she sat up and started laying down the rules: 1) she wasn't touching him if he didn't shower after doing his farmyard stuff, 2) no anal, and 3) she wasn't going to watch any of his porn. The rest she would think of later when they occurred to her. He just sort of blinked at her, nodded, and, when the repeated nods didn't seem to convince her, he saluted her. He giggled when she tried to hit him for the salute, and then asked if he could make some rules too. So she stated rule number 4) he couldn't make any rules. Shortly after she stated rule number 5) no tickling.

After he dropped her off at home, she soaked in the bath-tub for a while, finally feeling clean after the long periods of not showering on holiday. Feeling bored, she picked up her phone, and started texting him: _Rule no 6) no wanking in my bdrm evr again_. She got a :-P x back.

* * *

><p>She got a text from Liv saying she was going to the hospital to find Gracie, so she pulled the plug out of the bath, got dressed and headed out again. First she ended up back in Boots, then she met Liv, walked to the hospital hand-in-hand, and sneaked past Rich having a face-off with Professor Blood at reception. They had about five minutes before they were found out, but that was just long enough for them to try to tease Grace into waking up because her boyfriend was being hit on by metal-clunge, and 'cos she was going to miss the auditions for the Nutcracker, and... 'cos they missed her, just 'cos they really, really missed her. Mini told her she'd brought her some pressies: moisturiser, cos her skin was looking a bit hospitally, a hair brush, some lippy, a whole load of perfume samples, and some pink nail vanish. Absolute essentials so that when she woke up - and that's sooner rather than later - she wouldn't look and smell like a tramp. Then, when Professor Blood came and kicked them out, they both promised her they'd come back, and gave her a big kiss on each cheek simultaneously.<p>

They spotted Franky outside as they left, but she vanished before they could go to her.

"What the fuck has happened to us, Mini?"

Mini stared at her best friend, and was instantly reminded of another time when someone else took stock of their lives and didn't like it either.

_"You ok, Farm Boy?"_

_"I think I fucked up."_

_"It's only a bit of flour and eggs. I can't say the place was a palace to begin with -"_

_"No, like... really,_ really _fucked up."_

Just like she did then, she moved closer to her friend and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, letting Liv cry it out.

_"It's just, when did it all get so _fucking_ hard?"_

_"Well... that's what happens. But, you adapt, don't you? You look at what's changed, and you find a way to own it."_

The same words weren't going to help now. She spotted Rich a little way off, ranting down the phone, undoubtedly to Alo. She smiled. She could just picture him on the hills, sitting in his tractor, joint in one hand, listening to his phone in the other, being a good friend.

"She'll be alright."

Liv looked at her through the tears streaming through her face. Mini blinked, realised she was crying too. Liv coughed out a laugh. "How can you sound so sure?"

Mini smiled weakly, and pointed up at the sky. "'Cos it's Grace. And as jealous as He is that she's our bestie, He ain't that much of a tosser."

Liv laughed again, this time actually because she found it funny. "Good move Mins, calling God a tosser."

Mini pulled a faux-outraged look. "I'm not! I'm just saying that He will be if He takes our Gracie away. So He won't."

Liv smiled. "It's a good point. Amen to it, eh?"

They both crossed themselves, and fist-bumped. They watched as Rich hung up his phone and looked around, looking lost, went over, and took him inside. Professor Blood couldn't bar them from the building, so they found the cafe and started brain-storming ideas for get-well presents for Grace. None of them felt like going home just yet, or heading out for a laugh. Laughs were limited at the moment, they needed Grace to be complete.

After a lot of Tango and weak tea, they finally found out that actually Professor Blood could bar them from the building. Then they all parted ways to go home. But at least it wasn't out of defeat now. They all had things to do.

In fact, Mini was still busy with her new project at midnight, when she heard a familiar vehicle pull up outside and the door bell rang.

"I'm sorry if you were expecting my mum, she's out tonight," she said as she opened the door. Alo just grinned at her, unashamed, and bounced in.

"Eh, I prefer the younger model anyway."

She hugged him then. She didn't question why, she just really needed to hug him. He didn't seem to question it either, and rubbed her back soothingly. "I heard you guys went to see Gracie," he murmured into her hair. She nodded, not letting go just yet. "How'd she look?"

She pulled back a bit, blinked a lot to make sure she didn't cry again. "I've gotta admit, she's looked better. But I dropped some stuff by so hopefully one of the nurses will brush her hair, do her nails." He smiled: that sounded like Mini. Then she frowned, confused. "What'ya doing here, Farm-Boy? I don't remember inviting you."

He grinned and produced something from a pocket like a magician. "Look what I found in the barn!" She pulled an impressed face: it was a fairly generous bag of fairly good quality weed. Looked quite fresh. "I think it's Dewi's, it would certainly explain the lack of coherence." He then did a very good impression of his father's right hand man, but to describe it with words would defeat the point of it. He made her giggle nonetheless. "Now, I'll be honest, I did call Rich to see if he wanted to sample this, but he said he was busy, so here I am." He shook the bag. "Does this grant me an invitation?"

He looked so cute for a moment all she could do was just stand there and smile. And then his face lit up like a light bulb. "Ooh, ooh, annnnd!" He pulled his shirt off with a flourish and stood there in front of her with his arms stretched out to the side, half-naked. "Smell me."

"You what?" She stared at him like he was insane. Well, he _was_ insane, there was no 'like' about it.

"Just do it," he insisted. She debated for a second, and then took a step closer toward him and sniffed suspiciously. "Rule number 1) I showered." She burst out laughing now that he had finally made sense and kissed him. He really had actually, his hair was still damp in her fingers, and his skin felt soft. "Ah, good, the Lynx is working then."

She giggled. "Whatever you need to think, Farm-Boy." Then she dragged him up to her room, opened the windows as far as they would go, and they sat and rolled on the window sill, giggling away for hours. Good thing the pot was that strong in a way, it meant neither of them was remotely embarrassed about being stark naked, not remotely feeling anything but considerable amusement at the world, or rather breakfast foods. In fact, neither of them would remember why they got naked in the first place, originally the idea had been to look for munchies in the house. Maybe that's just what they were used to by now.

* * *

><p>Alo found things out very quickly. He figured out whereabouts she was ticklish, and that she didn't really care too much about Rule Number 5. She was pretty adventurous in bed, that was a pretty cool discovery. He found out about her insane diet and exercise regime the morning after the strong weed when he offered to make breakfast. He found out she didn't particularly like being called an idiot because of that regime. "Mins, you're beautiful, what the fuck are you doing eating chicken feed for?" He found out he was probably the first person to say that to her and mean it, because after he said that she did as he told her, went back upstairs while he put the toaster on, and ate carbs in bed. She crossed the line at jam, so he grabbed a spoon and just started eating it from the pot to tease her. He tasted of raspberries and she of butter when she kissed him to say thank you.<p>

He realised on the first day back to college how tactile she was, how tactile he was with her, when he found himself missing her. As quiet as their group was with worry for their missing comrades, the distance between her seat and his as they listened to Vivaldi felt like a heck of a long way. It was a long, long first day. But it was worth it: when he finally got out of class, the only one of them to have last period, she was waiting in the van, studying in her bra, knickers and one of his spare shirts. "Fucking took your time -" she started impatiently, but he was already kissing her, tossing her textbook away. It had been a _really_ long day.

"Farm-Boy, I have studying to do," she reminded him, undermining her own words by helping him out of his clothes.

He just shrugged innocently. "Eh, so do I." He slowly kissed his way down her front. "So. Do. I." Needless to say, they didn't do much homework.

He gave her a lift home again, and just before she jumped out, he gave her something. "Show it to Liv too. Rich and I worked on it, it's for Grace." It was a copy of Grace's completed coursework. "Figured you'd want to have a listen," he explained with a shrug.

She smiled, touched, kissed him one last time. Then... "Come back once you're done with the cowes?"

He smiled too, nodded. "Might be a while, Mumgabe's been on me back a bit, and then there's Rule Number 1."

She shrugged. "Shower here."

* * *

><p>"Alo."<p>

"Hmm?"

"It just woke me up. Calm the fuck down."

"Oh. Balls. Sorry." He shuffled around behind her, not that he could move much without moving his arm, which her head was rested on. It was early, but she was awake now, so she turned over onto her back, gazed at him through half-open eyes, debating whether or not to help him or not. She decided not: it was his fault she was feeling sleep deprived, after he rocked up at midnight and dragged her into the shower. She didn't get to sleep until two. It was now just gone six. "Mins?" She grunted quietly, unable to make any other noise to show she was listening. "What in God's name was that noise you made in the shower last night?"

Okay, she was wide awake now. "Are you sure you want to bring that up, Farm Boy?"

"No, seriously, genuinely curious, it's been bugging me all night, what was that?" She groaned, closed her eyes. For God's sake. "It was like... was it like one of those old kettles that whistle? Nah, it was more like... fuck's sake, what is that sound... ooh! Ooh! I know what it was, it was like -"

She slapped her hand over his mouth. "If you say another word about that, you aren't getting laid. Alright?"

He went deathly still. And silent. Ahhh. She removed her hand and closed her eyes again. Maybe she would go back to sleep after all.

Then... "Mini?"

Fuck's sake. "Yes?"

"If I promise to drop it, can I get laid right now?"

She creaked open one eye. He actually looked hopeful. It reminded her of Rags. "That wasn't the deal, Farm-Boy."

"Well, it's just that, it ain't calming down, so -"

Whatever he was going to say, it got muffled by Mini kissing him, pulling his body over hers. "Rule Number 7) talk less."

He grinned, nodded and kissed her back. He liked early mornings. He'd convert her eventually.

* * *

><p>Communication broke down amongst the lot of them. Rich vanished off the radar, and so any news about how Grace was dribbled to a halt. So Alo went to find him. There was no Grace Blood at the hospital anymore, though there was a nurse called Pauline who seemed very sympathetic, particularly after Alo told her he was trying to avoid Grace's father. If Grace wasn't there though, then Rich wasn't going to be either. So he searched around, finally rocking up at the Blood house. Or castle, whatever the hell was the best description for the building. And lo and behold, there he was.<p>

Well, kind of. Richard Hardbeck was there. The remains of Rich, his friend, were there too. The complete version was nowhere to be found. So he stayed, pulled his mate back together. Smashed some shit up. Raided Blood's wardrobe. And wondered why things felt off. Really off.

Dewi's weed helped with that feeling though. Despite the coughing. And spewing all over Rich's face. That was quite funny though.

Some weird things happened. Rich diving into the bushes, for instance. Alo still hadn't figured out what he was after. And dancing to Phil Collins whilst on hold, that was very weird in retrospect. That was not happening again.

He did have an absolutely epic moment of genius with the fridge though. That was well cool. Another dead end however, when David Blood picked up the phone, was not so cool.

What was less epic was being caught.

Even less epic was hearing 'I wanted a fuck, he's available.'

Even less epic than that was hearing 'long as you don't talk, yeah, it's alright.'

The sex was still fucking awesome though.

Maybe he shouldn't have actually said out loud that she sounded like a paddling pool got punctured. He did promise earlier that he wouldn't. Shit.

Another weird thing happened though: why did Rich run off with his phone? It wasn't ringing.

He really, really, _really_ shouldn't have shouted at Rich that Grace had dumped him. For a start, it was bollocks, and he knew it. But still; anything, _anything_ to piss him off just as much as his amp being tossed onto the driveway and Rich's lack of gratitude was pissing him off.

As for what happened outside...

"I was trying to help you! I'm always trying to help you." It was true. Alo might fuck it up sometimes, but it was always true. Even right now, specially right now, when emotions were running high and all the world was going psycho on them.

"Why bother?" Rich sounded so defeated. But it just spurred Alo on.

"Because I'm your mate."

"Yeah? You sure you don't want to be in the band so Mini can let you look her in the eye when you suck her cock?"

It said something that all that occurred to Alo right then was for Rich to quieten the fuck down so no one could hear. So Mini wouldn't hear anyone else hearing. His own dignity never sprang to mind. "Can you just keep it down, yeah?"

"What, she still here?" Rich actually sounded surprised; what did Mini have to stay for after all? An encore?

"Yeah, and she doesn't want anyone to know, alright?"

"Do you want to know why Mini doesn't want anyone to know?" Alo shook his head, looked away. No. No, he really didn't want to hear what was about to come out of Rich's mouth. "It's 'cos she'll fuck anything, and you're anything." And Rich said it anyway, and anger ran cold in Alo's veins. "You're a fucking joke."

So he hit him.

Instantly he felt shit about it. Rich was his brother, he'd never hit him before, ever. "Mate..."

Alo thought Rich would just punch him back. The headbutt was the last thing he'd expected. As he rolled on the floor in agony he'd hoped that would be the end of it.

It wasn't. It got worse.

"You know what, Alo? You give up poking Yoko Ono, and we'll start the music revolution together. Me and you."

Alo stared at him through tearing eyes, saw that hint of grief-ridden mania, and knew instantly what his answer was, and that he might as well just say it. Never mind his dignity, never mind the revolution. Never mind his axe that Rich then picked up menacingly.

"Don't ask me to do that, man." Fuck it, it hurt. The headbutt, obviously, he wasn't _that_ lame. "I might never see breasts like that again." Okay, no, he was that lame. "I mean, they are magnificent." Then all went to hell. "Rich, not the axe, Rich. Rich, don't throw away the dream!" It was a good throw. If it had been someone else's dream Alo would have applauded him for it. But fuck's sake, not this one. "You dick!"

"Take your piece of shit axe, your piece of shit amp and put it in your piece of shit van and fuck off!" Rich yelled as he stormed away, tossing the guitar into the bushes again.

Alo thought that now, maybe now, it was all over as he picked himself up. But no, that would be too nice. There she was at the window, wrapped in a sheet, like a temptation the Devil had disguised as an angel, clearly having watched the whole thing.

For a moment he debated going after Rich, changing his mind, and not doing a John Lennon. But then she dropped the sheet, and and making the 'right' or 'wrong' decision didn't seem all that important any more. So he went back inside, went straight up the stairs...

And froze at the top. He was shit scared of what lay in that room. No matter what happened, he knew he was head-fucked. And he knew it was too late to save himself from it now, so in he went, and shut the door behind him.

She was sitting cross-legged in the centre of the bed, wearing the kimono Alo had nicked from the Bloods' bedroom. She looked beautiful, like a siren.

"Come on." She waved him over, smiling gently. She had a small wash-cloth in one hand, and a bowl of water at her side. "Come here, I'm not going to bite."

He stared at her, not quite believing her, and then did as he was told and sat facing her on the edge of the bed. He watched as she dipped the cloth into the water, squeezed the excess out, and started dabbing his nose with it. He winced as fresh pain shot through his face; fuck's sake, why he did always get head-butted? She smiled sympathetically, rinsed the blood out of the cloth, and held it gently to the bridge of his nose.

He could feel the fight slowly drain out of him. He'd had enough crap for one day.

"Thanks, by the way."

He peered at her in confusion. "Eh?"

She chuckled. "For... that." She gestured out the window facing out onto the drive.

The faintest glimmer of hope that he wasn't a complete joke after all sparked into life. There she was, the Mini who was alright.

"Why?" The smile vanished off her face, and she lowered her hand, along with the cloth from his face. She didn't look away from him though. "Why is this a secret?"

He knew he sounded needy. But fuck it, he'd just punched his best friend over this. He had a damn right to sound needy right now. And she knew it. He knew she knew it, it was written all over her face. "'Cos if he's right, I'd rather just know, and then... well, whatever, nothing changes, or... or..." He trailed off. There was no 'or'. He didn't want any bloody 'or'.

"Rich doesn't know shit, Alo."

Alo's eyes widened. Mini sighed. Fuck's sake. Thanks, Rich. She was actually going to have to define things properly now. It had been fantastic, the last month, not defining things.

"If I had wanted to fuck anything, I would have fucked Rider back in Morocco," she put bluntly. Alo winched at the mental image. Not good, not good. "But I didn't." She took a deep breath, and told the bottom line. "Last year my idiot ex-boyfriend cheated on me, repeatedly, with my best friend. In fact, he cheated on me with her before he even slept with me. It was _humiliating_."

She looked away then. She didn't want to see pity in Alo's eyes, she never, ever wanted to see pity from him. If she hadn't looked away though, that's not what she would have seen.

"Other people complicate things when they know. They ask difficult, personal questions, they prod, they pry. Things get distorted. Things change, but they're not really your changes, they're changes other people invoked. And then you can't own it. No one does."

There was logic to it. He could see it, in fact. It was a bit fucked up, but it was there. Shit.

"I don't really want anything serious, Alo. I tried that with Nick, and it was... well, it was monumentally crap. But we've been alright, haven't we, with nothing interfering?" She smiled, shrugged. "I'm kinda happy, to be honest. So... are we cool?"

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He should have known. He should have known ages ago, in Morocco, during that one day they had, right when he didn't correct the guy with the ice cream. Finally he got the slightest glimmer of what Rich had been moaning about for days. He got why Rich was consumed with seeing his girlfriend. He was stuck in some fucked up place between that misery, and Mini's fucked up logic. He did get it, he really did. He got her, so of course he got it. Mixed up with the bitchiness and that sharp tongue of hers, the selfishness and snobbery, and the girl who still didn't like waking up at dawn, who'd eaten buttery toast with him, had waited for him in his van in his shirt, with her incredible tits and arse and legs and hair and _everything_, was someone who thought that that hadn't been enough.

Last year he'd thought that Nick was a bit of a pillock for the mess he'd gotten into. Now, he was a fucking retard. Why the fuck hadn't he...

Why the fuck had Nick not held on to her?

So Alo nodded, smiled even. "We're cool, McGuinness."

Relief swept over Mini's face, and she leant in for a kiss. But she stopped half-way, pulled a face, dabbed at his nose again with the cloth to get rid of the blood stains, and then kissed him. She was about to reach for him to pull him closer when he pulled back. "But I have one condition." She raised an eyebrow. That's not how they did things. "Revoke Rule Number 7."

She frowned, confused, then remembered what Rule Number 7 was and rolled her eyes. "Fuck's sake, Alo, I didn't mean it, fucking Rich was here, you know what I'm like when -"

"Revoke Rule Number 7, or I'm not going to bang your brains out right now."

She grinned despite herself. "Okay, Farm Boy. Deal. I revoke Rule Number 7. You can talk as much as you like." She thought for a moment. "Except when I'm asleep. Okay?"

He grinned victoriously. "Deal."

Nothing happened.

"Erm..." Mini frowned again, very confused. "You going to bang my brains out, or what?"

He stopped grinning, widened his eyes innocently. "Oh, I didn't say I was going to, only that I was not not going to -"

Part of her wanted to whack him with a pillow, or something more deadly. The rest of her, most of her pounced on him, shrieking as they fell off the edge of the bed.

Cheeky git.


	4. Chapter 4

**This is the last of what I'll write for Episode 2. I want to see how Episode 3 proceeds. But it's obvious the gang are on their way from purgatory to hell, so will be spending the week writing flashbacks of better times.**

**Thanks to everyone who's written a review so far. To answer a few:**

**Byzinha Lestrange, you're right: this season is going to kill us! I've read your stuff too and enjoyed it as well, hopefully see you again at the top of the archives.**

**To MaloFanBigtime, I'm sorry to say I'm going to be going light on the details! No sand dunes or caves, I'm afraid. The point of the detail of Chapter 1 was to show what kind of an experience they had, it wasn't just to get us all worked up! 'Cos let's face it, there's millions of ways two people can do that tango.**

**To Ether's Breath, thank you, I'm glad you liked Mini's POV in Chapter 1. It was certainly easier to write, as a woman. Men are weird. Particularly when it comes to sex lol.**

**To the rest: Yaymalo, thank you for being the first person to review, and so quickly too! Miss Gypsy Willow, Beyondavalon, Chasing You; I hope you're still reading since Chapter 1, and still liking it. MsCharlotteJane, Apassionforships and SometimesLoveIsn'tEnough, thank you for sticking with it!**

**To those who I can't name but appear in the traffic, thank you also! This Voyage went global! Woo!**

**Now for the storm...**

* * *

><p>Mini was thinking. It was not a good idea in the slightest.<p>

To say that she hadn't really thought about what had been happening for the last month would have been a lie. She had been, she'd just been telling herself to shut up too. It had, in a way, been working. Working in the sense that she wasn't listening to herself. In a way as in it wasn't working at all.

What should have been just a glorious fuck on the floorboards hadn't been. Instead it had been a head-fuck. She hadn't known it at the time, but she knew it now. She _really fucking_ knew it now.

Alo had practically pinned her down to the floor, raising her arms over her head, threading his fingers through hers as he snogged her until she saw sparks behind her eyelids. His head never strayed from hers, only venturing as far to kiss her neck, over her shoulder. He'd found the spot where she was most sensitive on her neck and unravelled her. It made electricity race down her spine, making her body arch against him, pushing her tits against his chest, pulling her hips down against his. It seemed to take him forever just to get out of that god-awful red jumper, let alone the rest. He was agonisingly slow, yet he touched her in all the right places, dug deep to where she wanted him most, where it felt best. When she came he dragged it out for her, making her body burn in endless agony. They were quiet, save for their heavy breathing and gasping, the creaking of the floorboards, of their bodies meeting. She almost felt like crying afterwards.

Usually one of them would say something, would break the post-coitus silence, or they'd do it again. This time they did neither. When his breathing started to go back to normal, he kissed her and then got dressed. "I need to pack my stuff up before Rich gets back." He sniffed, composed himself. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

There was no promise in it. He just got up and left her to her thoughts.

So there she was. Thinking. Alone.

Still feeling so fucking glorious. She kept closing her eyes, letting her skin's memory take over.

Alo had always been a good lover. She hadn't expected it, but now she thought about it - and she really didn't want to, but there she was anyway - it shouldn't have surprised her. He wasn't selfish like her, so he was always striving to please her. He always wanted her to feel as good as he did. Not just in bed either, he was always making her laugh, making her smile. So he talked and teased and laughed too, and was happy. Somehow she made him happy. She had no idea how.

But now... now it wasn't just about them. Undoubtedly Rich wouldn't bother to keep his mouth shut, and everyone would find out sooner rather than later. Already with just Rich knowing she felt like she'd lost what she had with Alo. Whatever she had... they had.

She remembered what she'd told him, about how humiliating it was when her relationship with Nick turned out so badly. It was all true, and a lot of it she'd never told anyone before. That intimacy made her feel uncomfortable, vulnerable, naked even but in a way that felt ugly. Questioning how things were had changed how things were, and she didn't know whether she liked it, whether this was something she wanted to adapt to. She knew of only one way to adapt to the changes: to choose all or nothing.

And she didn't know which one to pick.

She wondered whether it would have been better if it had never been a secret. Would the last month have been the same? No, of course not. Would it have felt the same?

Probably not. Or maybe. She didn't know.

They made sense when they had no clothes on. In the privacy of Morocco. When it was just them, being... sensual and sexy and funny and tactile and just fucking awesome. Mini the Girlfriend and Alo the Boyfriend made no sense. No one would ever made sense of that. There was nothing conventional about them. Which is what she liked right now.

Hell, liked didn't even cover it.

She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what she should do. She didn't fucking know what she wanted to do, except turn the clock back, and not make a racket and sound like a paddling pool being punctured. She didn't know how to own this.

So she tried not to think, 'cos thinking gave her no answers.

She'd have to find a way to stop thinking.

* * *

><p>Well. That hadn't been weird, not-high-fiving fucking Rider over shagging Mini. That hadn't torn him up at all.<p>

It was kind of funny when Mini tried to cover that she hadn't told her best friend the good news because he'd been balls-deep inside her. 'Yeah, yeah... really going to straighten my hair tonight'. Oh good Lord, help them. Help him.

He loved Rich though. He was his brother and he loved him for saving them. He didn't have to do that, he could have let them sink.

What was an epic idea from Liv and letting the party commence quickly turned sour though. Rider drove Mini away from him, making Alo feel sick for the hour and forty six minutes that she was away gathering Liv and Franky's party stuff for them. Franky figured a way of stuffing balloons with confetti whilst Liv found the wine cellar for them - how did he and Rich miss that? Nick turned up with Mini and Rider, in typical Nick-party-spirit. Except whatever he'd taken, Mini had as well. Had taken quite a lot of.

By the time they all had their party gear and faces on, the first wave of complete strangers had started turning up. The poor sods looked pretty surprised when Liv pounced on them all and started charging them, but they all handed over the money after Liv said 'be merry and trash away'. Professor Blood's fancy-as portrait now sported a very impressive moustache. And very thick eyebrows.

And his siren was singing from the rocks. Or rather, had been DJing, except that didn't work so well, so Liv figured out how to stick the headphones in so the crowd listened to other stuff, and Mini could make up her own tunes in her own bubble. A few poor souls had been smashed on the rocks already, or slapped away. A few more had been more successful at snaring her. Before she seemed to get bored of them and pushed them away too.

And he couldn't move. Because she didn't want anything serious, did she? So he couldn't exactly tell them all to fuck off. He couldn't be the only one snogging her right now. So he just watched, frozen, his veins now glaciers. 'Nothing' was all he could tell Liv. 'Nothing' was all he could do. And 'nothing' was all he had. But he carried on staring at her anyway, until finally Rich spared him.

She did come to the front when they started though. She did bounce along with Liv and Franky on Nick's shoulders. He even heard her whoop after the first chorus. But he couldn't look at her then. Right there on that stage, he was one of the leaders of the Revolution. On that stage he had no fucking problems, no fucking issues. Even their bizarro drummer wasn't that big of a deal.

_You are the sword, I am the knight_  
><em>It's destiny, united we will fight<em>  
><em>Chop us down, we're reborn<em>  
><em>Together forge will that can never be torn<em>  
><em>You can cleft us in twain<em>  
><em>But we'll reanimate and our core remains the same<em>

_Because we are, we are, we are_  
><em>Because we are, we are, we are one<em>

"This house, this fucking house, belongs to someone who doesn't care, as long as you're in your place. This house is a fucking prison! It needs... it needs to be -"

"- RIPPED THE FUCK APART!"

It was fucking epic.

_Seek to control_  
><em>But you can't break our whole<em>  
><em>We will be heard, be heard<em>

_Because we are, we are, we are_  
><em>Because we are, we are, we are one<em>

Then it all went a bit odd. Not the kissing Rich, that was just normal. There was meant to be another verse, split between the two of them, except...

Except Rich suddenly ripped his guitar off, jumped into the crowd, yelling Grace's name, weaving to the left, to the right, finding nothing. Alo could see he was finding nothing, he could see over the top of them all and he couldn't see her. She was in Zurich. It wasn't quite outer space, but it still weren't here. So what the fuck?

He signalled to O'Malley to start wrapping it up early, closed off the song, kept his eyes on Rich, and when he vanished from view killed it and thanked them all for coming, blah blah, and dived into the crowd too, following his friend's trail.

"Rich, just wait a second!"

"I can't, I'm wasting time." He sounded like a zombie. It was starting to scare him. It was starting to really scare him.

"You just made a mistake, it's alright," Alo told him, trying to get his friend to calm down.

"She's got to be here!"

Alo seized Rich's shoulder and turned him round, stopped him. "Rich, she's not here! You're just seeing things!"

"Nothing works without her, Alo, none of this!" Rich cried, angry that he wasn't getting it.

"We're gonna find her, mate. First thing tomorrow," he promised.

"No, not tomorrow! I need her now! It fucking hurts!"

Alo had nothing to say. There was nothing to say, nothing to comfort that. But that wasn't even what went through his head. He was scared, scared of what he was seeing.

"It fucking hurts so much..."

There it was. Rich's bare truth. That's all he was right now, just pain. They seemed to reach for each other at the same time, the two revolution brothers, unable to do anything else. But it wasn't enough; Rich let go and disappeared into the depths of the house to search for what wasn't there.

Leaving Alo to the knot in his stomach. He suddenly remembered some weird quote he heard once: don't stare long into the abyss, or the abyss will stare into you. His fear was so obvious to him he couldn't misinterpret it: he felt like he'd just stared into a mirror, and it had shown him his future. No, not his future. His present: _I need her now! It fucking hurts! It fucking hurts so much..._

How did this happen so fast?

"Alo?"

His heart sank. No, not now. Not right fucking now.

He turned slowly and saw Mini stumble towards him, looking lost. As it always did now, his stomach clenched with longing, but it clenched further this time. It just fucking hurt too.

"I just... I just..." She suddenly giggled. He sighed. When and how did she get so fucking trashed? "I just snogged some tosser, I... I didn't... it wasn't _you_, I thought it... I thought it was... it... fuck, I... Alo, I fucked it up, I'm... I'm fucking... I'm sorry, Alo, I'm so... so... fucking... fuck, I'm so trashed... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

She had her hands up around her head, as though they needed to be there to catch it, and she was swaying badly on the spot. She was fucked and beautiful and it was killing him. He gently took her hands in his, stepped forward and wrapped his arms round her, holding her head for her instead against his shoulder. She instantly folded herself into the hug, her own arms wrapping round his back.

He both did and did not hear her mumble something into his skin. Did not in the sense that he hoped he was mistaken. He could have been mistaken. It was the most painful thing she could have told him. It shouldn't have been, it should have made him happier than he'd ever been in his life. But this wasn't Mini right now. This was pilled-up, mucked-up, fucked-up Mini. So he ignored it, pretended he didn't hear her, and tried not to cry. The hot-cold shit was scalding him now. Burning and freezing him.

He did hear the next bit though: "Al, I feel sick..."

Fuck's sake. He took her hand, lead her to one of the bathrooms upstairs, kicked out the occupants who were just dry-humping in the bath-tub. He got them out just in time; she vomited promptly into the loo as he locked the door. He held her hair back as she puked the contents of her stomach up - mostly fluids by the looks of things, he told her she should have eaten something - until she was just dry-retching. God, she looked awful. Clammy and pale and thin and wrecked and he still couldn't keep his eyes off her as he gently rubbed her back, kept her hair out of the way. When the retching seemed to pass he got her to drink water, sat on the floor next to her, helped her as she puked up the water too.

They were in there for a long time. He could hear the carnage going on outside, and felt so completely distanced from it. There he was, stroking Mini's hair as she breathed heavily, her head resting on his shoulder, his free hand holding one of hers. After a very long while he realised she'd passed out. He sighed, considered palming her off to Liv. It took him less than a second to veto that idea. So he carried her out of the bathroom, up to the room they'd hijacked, locked the door behind them, dulling the party outside to them. He deposited her on the bed, grabbed a bin and placed it next to her in case, and almost jumped out of his skin when he felt her fingers thread through his hair.

"Alo," she murmured. He stopped moving, waiting, his heart pounding in his chest. "You look like an albino space monkey."

He stared at her and then burst out laughing. "Yeah?"

"Hm-hmm." Her hand trailed over his cheek, held him there. "_My_ albino space monkey."

He smiled painfully, and nodded. "Okay."

He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. She'd fallen asleep again, but her hand was still on his cheek, holding on like a magnet. So he peeled off his silver Liberace suit, climbed into bed beside her and spooned her, fitting into her side. Her top itched his skin, so he gently pulled it off her, tucked the duvet around them, carefully turned her head so she was facing the bin.

Just in case.

He thought he'd struggle to sleep. He was out like a light.

* * *

><p>She tried to sneak out when she woke. Her stomach and throat hurt like hell, her head was twice as heavy than it normally was, but she didn't want to face him when he woke up.<p>

He used to look peaceful when he slept with her, the few times she was awake before he was. Now, he looked tense, as though he was waiting for something bad to happen. She couldn't help but know that he had a right to look like that. She'd probably never see him sleep peacefully beside her ever again.

So she left, rather than face some awkward unstated goodbye. But as she was about to go down the stairs, she peered down and saw Professor Blood sitting at the bottom, and was torn with what to do. Then she realised. David Blood was back, just sitting on the bottom step, surrounded by the mess, not reacting to it, fiddling with his hands too much. She froze.

She heard Alo approach her from the room, heard him speak her name, worried at the look of her face. Felt the same dawning horror descend over him as he also saw Grace's father downstairs and knew.

"Fucked up my house, I see," Blood suddenly said, making them both flinch, thinking he was talking to them.

"Sorry," they heard Rich say quietly down below, watched as the principal just nodded. "Where's Grace gone?"

Mini would never remember whether that was when Alo held her hand on the bannister. It was either then, or after. But either way, she would always remember that he did.

"I'm very sorry to say... Actually, she died yesterday afternoon."

Pain. It seized her everywhere, froze her solid. She didn't know whether she wanted to be sick or to scream or... just everything seized up in her body. It was too real. It was too real...

She barely heard what Rich said after the long silence. "I just spoke to her. I speak to her all the time."

"Me too." The tightness in David's voice took out the strength in Alo's knees, and he slowly crumbled to the floor, still holding her hand, gripping the bannister with his other hand, staring down at their friend's father. "What else is there to do?"

Mini slowly sat too. She didn't let go of Alo's hand. It was the only thing she was holding on to right now.

"She never woke up, did she, from the accident?" The desperate realisation drained the colour out of Alo's face. Things started to slide into place.

"That's why we went to Switzerland, to see if they could wake her up. I just wanted to try it, you know?" As they saw David Blood look up properly at their friend down below for the first time since he'd started speaking, tears streamed down Mini's face. She hadn't known that. She hadn't known it was that desperate at the time. They'd all thought it was to get Grace away from Rich the unworthy Metalhead. It never occurred to any of them that David Blood might have loved his daughter, loved her more than they did even.

"So all this time she was..."

"They said there was nobody left inside." She felt, rather than saw, tears fall down Alo's face too. "I just thought, what would she think of me for turning off the stupid machine thing? What would she think?"

They couldn't breathe, waiting with David Blood for Rich's answer. They couldn't even see him themselves; it were as though they were seeing him through Grace's father seeing him.

"She would have thought you're her dad, and that's what you're supposed to do."

As David Blood started sobbing, Alo's grip on Mini's hand tightened, and he let go of the bannister, clapped his hand over his mouth to keep quiet, trembling. Mini still couldn't break. She was suffocating. She wanted to sob, to scream, but she couldn't.

Rich sat next to the devastated man sobbing on the stairs, calm, ever so calm. Weightless. "She loved me." _She loved me_. It just hung in the air. A beautiful and wonderful truth. "And I..."

David started nodding, unable to deny it now. "Yes. That's why I'm here."

Then it all crashed over. She still couldn't scream, but she did start sobbing, so hard she couldn't make a sound, tears flowing freely. Alo pulled her into his arms, held her tightly as her body shook with grief, her tears staining his bare chest, his own tears dripping off his chin into her hair. Partly he did it because she needed it. Partly he did it because he needed it. Mostly he did it because they needed it.

They were there for a long time, crying for their lost friend together. Alo's tears slowly dried up, but he stayed there with her, stroking her hair, breathing slowly, not saying a word, grieving without tears. He didn't try to make her stop.

She didn't care about how it looked when Rich came up the stairs, found them. He and Alo just shared a look over the top of Mini's head, silently saying a whole load of things that can't really be expressed properly with words. "Hey, man." Alo said, croaking over the two words.

"Hey," Rich greeted back. He sounded hollow, empty. He hadn't really reacted yet. "Umm... I'm just going to let the others know, and... yeah."

He started back down the stairs. "Rich." He stopped, looked up at his best friend, still cradling Mini. "I'll let them know. Leave it to me." Alo smiled weakly. "Go on, go sit with her dad."

It took a moment, but Rich finally smiled weakly back, grateful. He went and got Alo's phone for him, put a hand on Mini's shoulder, comforting but most acknowledging her grief, grateful for it, and disappeared downstairs again.

Mini didn't know what to say to him. Rich seemed so calm. She didn't want to break that.

Her head was still tucked into the crook of Alo's neck when he called Liv first. Listened as he broke the news soberly, his voice almost cracking, heard her best friend refuse to believe it even as she started to sob, and fresh tears started to fall again. She cried too when Liv managed to ask whether she knew yet, whether she should tell her, and tightened her hold on Alo's hand as he explained that she was there with him, that he'd take care of her, and asked if Liv could tell Franky and Nick. Liv was clearly still crying when she agreed and hung up, but she could speak. Mini wasn't sure whether she wanted to speak ever again.

Alo put the phone down on the carpet next to him, didn't let go of her.

No matter how head-fucked they were right now, they'd both be glad that they were together when they started mourning their loss. There was no telling whether it would ever be like that again.

* * *

><p><strong>Going to end this with the lyrics to the song that played over the trailer for Episode 2. They couldn't have picked a more perfect song. I found this only recently, and wrote the first section of this chapter with this ringing in my ears. So now, I share it with you.<strong>

**_Youth, by Daughter_**

**_Shadows settle on the place, that you left._**  
><strong><em>Our minds are troubled by the emptiness.<em>**  
><strong><em>Destroy the middle, it's a waste of time.<em>**  
><strong><em>From the perfect start to the finish line.<em>**

**_And if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones._**  
><strong><em>'Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs.<em>**  
><strong><em>Setting fire to our insides for fun<em>**  
><strong><em>Collecting names of the lovers that went wrong<em>**  
><strong><em>The lovers that went wrong.<em>**

**_We are the reckless,_**  
><strong><em>We are the wild youth<em>**  
><strong><em>Chasing visions of our futures<em>**  
><strong><em>One day we'll reveal the truth<em>**  
><strong><em>That one will die before he gets there.<em>**

**_And if you're still bleeding, you're the lucky ones._**  
><strong><em>'Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone.<em>**  
><strong><em>We're setting fire to our insides for fun.<em>**  
><strong><em>Collecting pictures from the flood that wrecked our home,<em>**  
><strong><em>It was a flood that wrecked this...<em>**

**_... and you caused it..._**  
><strong><em>... and you caused it...<em>**  
><strong><em>... and you caused it...<em>**

**_Well I've lost it all, I'm just a silouhette,_**  
><strong><em>A lifeless face that you'll soon forget,<em>**  
><strong><em>My eyes are damp from the words you left,<em>**  
><strong><em>Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest.<em>**  
><strong><em>Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest.<em>**

**_And if you're in love, then you are the lucky one,_**  
><strong><em>'Cause most of us are bitter over someone.<em>**  
><strong><em>Setting fire to our insides for fun,<em>**  
><strong><em>To distract our hearts from ever missing them.<em>**  
><strong><em>But I'm forever missing him.<em>**

**_And you caused it,_**  
><strong><em>And you caused it,<em>**  
><strong><em>And you caused it<em>**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, first flashback. This one proved to be quite long, chapter length in fact, so... well, here you go. Might as well, rather than let it gather dust in the Doc Manager. It's based on the online episode featuring Alo, Mini and Liv, centring round their project to deflower Alo. I liked that little smile of... was that relief, Mini? Right at the very end. You know, before the wank. Does it really sound like that, fellas? Eugh.**

* * *

><p>Oh God. It was the worst Scottish accent in all history. No one should be wanking off with a fake Scottish accent. Ew. Major, big EW.<p>

The look on Alo's face when he realised they were there was priceless though. "Your mum... let me in. So I -"

"- Had a wank," Liv finished for him. "Over her mum."

Mini stormed in, ripped the photo from his hands around his crotch, not thinking that maybe she didn't want to do that. "Alo, that is-that is-that is borderline serial killer behaviour! You're sick, you're..." Oh God, did the frame feel sticky? Ewww... "I'm not going on holiday with him. Everything'll be covered in his spunk!"

"No, it won't, I'll wank in the toilet." He said casually, zipping his trousers back up, winking at Liv.

She just stated the obvious: "You need to get laid, Al."

"I know!" He agreed emphatically. "I don't love being the only virgin left in the group." The two girls passed a look between them. Something much like pity, only a little bit nicer. Sort of. Nah, it was pity. "I don't want to die alone with my dick in my hand. Maybe I need some help..." Hint, hint.

So, they went to the cafe for some tea. "What kind of girl you after?" Liv asked, resting her chin on her hands.

"Well, good bum, banging mammaries, proper hot, weed-smoker, pill-taker, and she's got to be able to do the splits," he listed.

Right. "Those girls only exist in video games and pornos," Mini pointed out. There was going to have to be some serious negotiating here.

Oddly, he didn't believe her. "Bullshit! My babysitter when I was twelve, Sally, was exactly like that. And she was well into me!" He then grinned at her. "Blatantly wanted my pre-pubescent dick!" He flicked his eyebrows up teasingly and stuck his tongue out at her. And he wondered why he hadn't got laid yet...

"Even if a girl like that existed, she'd never even look at you," she spat back harshly. She never did particularly like it when he flirted with her sometimes. Particularly around other people. Made her feel too... actually she wasn't sure. It still struck a nerve though.

"So I guess I might as well just pay for it then, yeah? Seeing as you're saying that's all I could get?" He said bitterly.

"That's grim!"

"Look!" Liv said. So he did. "Mini, stop being such a bitch," the blonde sighed, retracting her claws. "Alo, she kinda has a point. Here's what we're going to do."

She didn't tell him the plan. She told Mini, whose face lit up at the prospect, and the two girls commanded him to finish his cuppa, and then dragged him back to Mini's house. Where they then went through _her_ wardrobe. "You are _not_ dragging me to a gay club in drag..."

"Oi!" Mini glared at him. "You saying I look like a drag queen or something?"

There was a brief moment when he could have rolled with that. Except she was actually properly glaring at him, and Liv had stopped too, waiting for the end result. Which probably involved pain in the crown jewels. So... "No. Of course not." He said soberly. He then smiled a bit manically for emphasis. She seemed to accept that though, and went back to rummaging through her stuff. "So... what are you looking for?"

"Last year's Halloween shit."

He wasn't sure whether he'd have been better off in drag after all. "Erm... may I ask why?

"No," Liv answered, "you may not. Now sit down."

Again he did as he was told - he got the impression he'd be doing that a lot today - and sat down on the edge of Mini's bed. He looked around the room for a bit, admiring how girly Mini's bedroom was, and then let his eyes drift back to the girls. Liv was reaching for something on a shelf at the top, whilst Mini was bending down, rummaging deep. He had quite a nice view of her arse actually.

"Bingo!" He jumped a little at her exclamation, looked at anything else and then back at her as she dragged a plastic bag out of the depths. It still didn't quite answer the question of what they had in store for him. "Liv, you got spare eyeliner?"

Eh?

Liv shook her head. "Nah, left it all at home, gonna have to use yours."

Alo scrambled back until he hit the wall, the two girls advancing on him with weapons unknown. Halloween? Eyeliner? What the _hell_? Mini shrugged. "Alright, you go through this lot," she handed the bag of goodies to Liv, rummaged in a drawer, produced a black pencil and a sharpener, and stepped towards him. "I'll tart him up."

"Woah, woah, woah!" He yelled out, waving his arms out in front of him. The two girls froze in surprise, as though they'd forgotten that he was actually there. He glanced from one to the other, feeling a little like a frightened rabbit. "What the fuck are you going to do to me?"

The two girls exchanged a glance, and then Mini stepped forward. She got on the bed, leant on her knees and smiled at him. "Trust me."

He blinked at her for a moment, and then surrendered. The two girls both shared a chuckle, and then Liv sat down cross-legged on the floor, tipped the bag up and started going through it. He leaned forward to see what there was, but Mini grabbed his chin and brandished the eyeliner. "Trust me?"

He sighed, nodded into her hand, and let her shuffle forward on her knees. She carefully applied the eyeliner, making him blink a lot from the ticklish, unfamiliar sensation. She took a while, heavily outlining the bottom of his eye before instructing him to shut his eyes so she could do the top. He obeyed, and enjoyed the feel of her breath light on his cheek, her fingers still gently holding his chin in place. To do the other eye she straddled his knees, told him to turn his head to the side a bit, and repeated. She smiled at the end result and turned to speak to Liv over her shoulder. "Doll, can you get me my lipstick? You know the one." Whilst she waited for Liv to find it for her, Alo enjoyed the view. Her arse was sitting on top of his knees, and the way her head was turned emphasised the curve of her neck to her shoulder. The temptation to run his hand up her thigh suddenly danced through his mind.

Then he looked away, wide-eyed. Where the fuck did that thought come from? Staring at her arse made sense to him, he was a boy. The hand up her thigh was bordering into other places though. Stop thinking, bey, he told himself, sounding a little like his dad in his head.

The colour of the lipstick Liv handed over was a bit... startling, and Mini waited patiently for him to stop looking like a deer in the headlights. "Come on, Farm Boy. Pucker up."

He did so, feeling very odd, and she giggled at the face he pulled, shuffled a little closer so she was pretty much sitting on his thighs, and carefully blackened his lips. She smiled proudly at her handy-work as he copied the motions of many girls before him, smudging the lipstick around his mouth. Having done it, he still didn't know why girls did that. Mini giggled again, perfected it up again, rubbing here and there around his lips with her thumb. "There we go. All done." She inspected him, and ruffled his hair up a bit more.

Behind them Liv started making noises that she was ready for her half, and Mini scrambled off him, making him wince as blood flow returned to normal. The smell of her perfume lingered. Then he saw what Liv had in store for him, and suddenly understood why the lipstick was black. "Oh God..."

"Be glad that Mini's a freak and not that much shorter than you," Liv teased as she shook her choices out in front of him. A ripped, black vest top with some skulls print on the front, and long skinny black jeans. There were a lot of chains everywhere. "Oh, and that last year, we went as Goths at Halloween."

There was a pause. He looked at them both. Clearly everyone was waiting for something. He was waiting for an explanation. He had a feeling he didn't want to know what they were waiting for. "Err..."

"Well, come on, Farm Boy."

"Yeah, hurry up, Al."

They both just looked at him incredulously. "For...?"

"Oh for God's sake." Mini leant over the bed, grabbed his hand, yanked him back to his feet. Fucking hell, the girl was strong. "Strip."

No, he must be dreaming. "You what?"

"Get changed, Alo, come on." Liv said, clearly deeply amused. He just stared at one to the other. Wait... what?

"Oh for..." Mini took a step towards him, yanked him closer to her, grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it right off him. Oh holy Christ, he wasn't dreaming...

"Arms forward," she commanded. Rendered dumb he did as he was told, lifting his arms up. She took the vest top off Liv, fit his arms into it, pulled it down, tucked it around here and there. Then looked up at him. "You can do the rest yourself. Think you can do that?"

He nodded, and the black jeans were shoved into his hands. Then he didn't move. "Can I get some privacy?"

Mini raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and followed Liv out. She threw one parting comment at him before shutting the door. "You've got ten seconds. Try not to get more spunk over my shit."

He wasted one second just absorbing the fact he'd just been stripped half naked by a girl. By Mini, to be precise, whose top he'd been trying to get a glimpse down. Then he practically leapt out of his own trousers and started tugging the jeans on. He'd just managed to zip them up and start tucking his boxers in when the girls peeked their heads round the door. "All decent?" Liv asked.

He spread his arms out in a silent 'ta-da!' and then caught sight of himself in the mirror. 'Ta-da' did not cover it.

"Seriously, I look like a dick."

He'd made this comment several times in the last couple of hours. In those last couple of hours the two girls had taken photos for evidence, marvelled that he'd been skinny enough to squeeze into Mini's jeans, he made a joke about how much fun she'd had in them last, and found out that actually she had managed to get a snog off a guy at a party. Too much tongue, she'd commented. They'd blackened his eyes further with eyeshadow as well as another application of eyeliner, more lipstick just before they got into the club that they had dragged him too.

They had been courteous enough to give him some apple sourz shots though. Just to steady the old boy.

Oh, and they did his nails. And gave him an entire list of contradictory pulling tips as they did so.

And then he was told the Grand Plan. "We're being tactical," Liv told him. "Goth girls are easy."

Mini's hand grabbed his chin, not so gently this time, and yanked his head a bit so he looked at what she wanted him to look at. "Prime target: super needy, lonely, still do-able." _Pretty fit_, he wanted to add. Mini smiled. "She's perfect," she summed up nicely.

Huh. Alright. He could do this. "Okay."

"If you need us, just do this signal:" Liv said, and then demonstrated the naffest signal ever conceived. No, he wasn't going to dry-hump the air.

"Yeah, I'm not doing that," he said confidently, and then went in. Hooo. He had a second to think of the opening line. The closer he got to the target, the fitter she got. Huh. This might not have been such a crap idea after all. "The devil sups at the teat of the snake bite."

Thank God the girls didn't hear him. Even a part of him knew how lame that was. But, confidence was key, Mini had told him. But not arrogance, surplus of arrogance is off-putting, Liv had pointed out. Fuck's sake, just ignore them! Women didn't know what they want!

"I'm busy actually," the target said witheringly, "writing a poem, about hate and destruction."

Oh joy. "Alo," he said. Just roll with it, you've introduced yourself. "Bang into poetry. Drink?"

When she picked shots, he thanked God he'd been able to hold his drink since he was fourteen. He told himself that the ghastly shots, listening to ridiculous poetry, getting his name wrong, calling the ex even, was all in the name of Sex. It was a good cause. Then he hit the brick wall. He couldn't quite compete with Bruce Tits (what a fucking name!). His band still needed a drummer, and a permanent name that wasn't Hungry Monkey Anus. So he gave a signal - not the signal Liv came up with, but a signal nonetheless - and paced in the loo until Liv turned up to give him a much needed pep talk. "Alo..."

"I've bought her all her drinks! And now she wants a rock star!" He moaned. Fuck's sake. How difficult did this whole de-flowering business have to be?

"Well..." Liv began, circling round him to massage his shoulders like a boxer in the ring. "Give the girl a rock star."

"How? I can't just go out there and play a gig, can I? - Oh, wait..." He was a fucking genius.

He had a word with the barmen and headed to the front, and addressed his new audience. "Everyone! Alright this is for Raven, to prove to her that gingers can be rock stars too!"

And then he picked up his phantom guitar, and played the best gig of his life. Absolutely fucking epic.

And it fucking worked too. Until someone grabbed him off Raven. "Oi, you!"

"Raoul?"

Then he got head butted. Bollocks. Fucking hurt too. Whilst Mini cleaned him up and stuffed a tissue up his nose to clog the bleeding, his target made out with her not-so-kinda-ex boyfriend. Balls.

"Okay," Mini started, "you tried." That wasn't all that comforting. "And... got a nut to the face." She sort of prodded him in the arm. "Nice."

"Okay, look, I'm just going to do what I should have done ages ago and find a professional vagina, okay?" He said, voice low. He was fed up. He was really bloody fed up with this game now.

"Oh, new lows," Mini kindly pointed out, placing her hand on him and pushing him back into his seat.

"Look," he sniffed the tissue out of his nose and continued. "I think we've established tonight that no girl is going to _choose_ to fuck me." And he got up again.

This time Liv tried to stop him. "Dude, you can't undo virginity. The boy I lost it to asked for Mini's number seconds afterwards."

Now, he sympathised. But not enough to stop him. All it meant was he was going to be joining a very big club of people whose first times weren't that great. He didn't even need to ask about Mini's, he knew who that was to, so she couldn't exactly present a good case for 'what's worth waiting for'.

So he left. And would later wish he hadn't done that either.

"Really?"

Liv looked across the now empty seat between them at her best friend and nodded. Mini pulled a face. "Did you give him my number?" She asked. Liv nodded again, smirking. "What happened there?"

"You told him to take his third little finger elsewhere." The two girls grinned, particularly when it came back to Mini. "Exactly as I knew you would."

They chuckled. Mini always did like telling someone to fuck off. She sighed, gazed down at Alo's seat and looked back up at Liv. "We should go after him. Try shoving some sense down his throat. I can't exactly talk either, can I? I lost my virginity to Nick minutes after he'd frolicked with you." She said it lightly, meant it lightly, but Liv still winced at the memory of it. But Mini's mind wasn't on the past. "Just 'cos we had a less-than-ideal time of it doesn't mean he should either." She looked around the bar and pulled a face. "Besides, see anyone worth pulling?"

Liv looked around too. "Nah."

"Hmm, me neither. Come on, let's go." And they followed Alo's footsteps.

"I'm sorry, by the way."

Mini looked at Liv with confusion. "For what?"

"For shagging Nick."

The two girls stopped, faced each other. Mini was surprised. Liv really did look sorry still.

"Hun." She took Liv's hand. "You downed a bottle of vodka for me. You don't owe me any 'I'm sorry's any more."

They smiled at each other, and carried on down the street. They stopped under the '24 Hour for Massage' sign, waited, counting the minutes, wondered aloud how long this sort of this lasted, joked about how long Alo would last. They'd just stopped giggling when the man - no longer the boy - stumbled out, pulling his vest top back on.

He was actually kind of touched that they were there. All the way to the end. Kind of.

"So." They stepped forward away from the wall. "Kinda followed you, to say sorry about before. How was it?"

He just sort of shrugged. "Bloody amazing! So yeah, not a virgin." He really hoped to God that they believed him. That was not a conversation he wanted to have.

"I can't believe you're a prozzie shagger," Mini drawled. "But at least you're not, y'know, going to wank your way through the holiday." But then they just let it slide, and took him home, each taking an arm and letting him lead them on. Like a pimp, they pointed out.

It kept him up though. It troubled him in the bathroom whilst he washed his face and Mini and Liv sorted bed linen. It troubled him so much that when Mini swanned in, teasing about how long his beauty regime with mud face masks made at the farm was going to take, troubled him when he didn't take the bait. In fact that troubled her too, that he didn't have a comeback to that, so she teased him some more about being disturbed by the inner lair of the Bristolian sex worker. When that didn't get a rise either she dragged him out, commenting that he must have been really worn out then, gotten his money's worth.

After that one he turned round and gave her a great big bear hug, making her squeak with surprise. "Night, Mins."

That shut her up.

After he was sure she'd fallen asleep, he whispered to Liv, waking her up, and confessed. "Liv, I didn't do it."

"What?" She croaked.

"The prostitute was Sally, my babysitter."

"Shit!" She grinned with amazement, turned over to face him.

"I've actually failed to have sex with a prostitute; what the fuck is wrong with me?"

"Nothing!" Liv said, reassuringly. To his surprise, she sounded genuinely sincere about it, as though that was a good thing. "Just wait for someone real. I promise you, it's worth it." And then she kissed him on the cheek, turned over again and went back to sleep. Well, tried to. "Alo, it's digging into me. Don't."

"Sorry..."

Could he get away with it...?

"ALO!"

Now, it was Liv, to his left, who yelled at him. The slap came from the right however, and from above. "Fucking hell..."

"No." It was Mini, leaning over the side of her bed, pointing a stern finger at him. He raised both hands in surrender, making her pull a face.

It took a while to get to sleep after that. Particularly after he realised that Mini had probably heard everything.

* * *

><p>It seemed odd, remembering that now. That very bizarre day that began and ended exactly where he was right now a month before seemed just that: a very bizarre day. Right now, he wasn't lying on the floor next to Liv, but had upgraded to being in Mini's bed. With Mini. And no clothing. And her hand on his cock was usually a lot more tender than his had been.<p>

Another improvement was that he wasn't imitating her mother either.

Liv was right. Mini was real, she was very, _very _real. He was glad he didn't manage it with Sally. Whilst he hadn't had to wait much longer, it was definitely worth the wait. _Definitely_.

They were basking in the waves that were still rippling through their bodies. His thoughts and memories started to piece themselves back together, and he was enjoying rising and falling with the rise and fall of her chest. And then a stray memory tickled its way to the forefront of his mind and he started laughing.

"What?" She asked, quickly turning paranoid. Oh God, what kind of noise had either of them made now?

"You remember Goth Clunge Night?" He asked her, still grinning at the memory stuck in his head. She raised an eyebrow, silently asking 'where's this going, Farm Boy?' "Remember what I said my ideal girl would be?"

Mini frowned, the memory escaping her, suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable. When he disappeared under the duvet it didn't help her feel any better. Until...

She felt him kiss the sides of her arse, one side then the other. "Good bum..." He slid up her body, kissed her breasts. "Banging mammaries..." His head poked out from under the duvet and kissed her. "Proper. Fucking. Hot." And then he just grinned at her, and ticked off boxes on his fingers. "Weed-smoker, done. And I know you're a pill-taker. But... can you do the splits?"

She stared at him incredulously for a second, then burst out laughing, grabbed a spare pillow and whacked him with it. "No, I fucking can't. But..." She shoved him onto his back, straddled him, kissed him to keep him quiet for a second. "But... I'm real, not CGI, and I can bang your brains out better than any porn star."

He pulled her down to kiss her again, then smirked. "Prove it." And laughed when she whacked him with the pillow again. And proved it. Several times.

Happy days.


	6. Chapter 6

**I miss you, Grace.**

**As you might have guessed from Chapter 4 and 5, we are now in a slightly different territory. If I spend the rest of the series writing about how unhappy these characters are, I'm going to go slightly bonkers. So, we'll be moving back and forth to remember better days.**

**This will be the new format: we'll begin with randomness, with something that could come from anything and anywhere, move on to scenes related to the last aired episode, and end with the beginning. McGuinness; I'm not buying the 'I wanted a fuck, he's available' excuse. Eventually, if I get it right, we'll wind back to under the hose in the pool in Chapter 1.**

**So, here we go...**

* * *

><p><em>Twitter<em>

_13.10 thatskinny_B: I'm holding a sexy car wash today for all you gorgeous people. Come on down If you want your car cleaned by a beautiful babe in a bikini._

_15.04 thatskinny_B: Still here guys, if you need your car washed by the sexiest girl in bristol then todays the day_

_16.03 thatskinny_B: Come on guys, this bristolian beauty is bored (and a little cold)._

_Facebook_

_17.12 Mini McGuinness: Is there anyone who wants a car wash. Come on people! It's cheap. I'm in a bikini for fuck sake_

_18.36 Mini McGuiness: Please, I'll even wash your windows. Or your pets. Someone contact me._

_- 18.37 Alo Creevey: Da needs his tractor cleaned, its covered in cow shit. Says he'll pay you £90_

_- 18.38 Mini McGuinness: Thanks farmboy but I'm good_

_- 18.39 Alo Creevey: Too late he's on his way_

Alo watched in pure amazement as his father bounced along in the tractor. Fuck a duck, did Mini wax it too? He was texting her without even looking away from the vehicle: _Shit mins, I can't believe you cleaned the whole fucking tractor_. He had about half a minute of being completely impressed until his phone beeped at him with her reply: _Didn't. I paid my little neighbours a fiver each to do it then went and had a bath. That's proper business farmboy_.

He was still laughing when he hit call back, when she answered. "Farm Boy, if you've got more business for me, my employees have gone to bed already, you'll have to come back some other time. Like never. How can I help?"

"You're a fucking legend, McGuinness," he told her, still laughing. "Aren't your neighbours like eight years old?"

"Yep. They wanted a tenner each, we met half-way."

He thought for a moment. "Hang on, you started from nothing?"

"No, Farm Boy, what do you take me for? I'm not that un-generous. I offered them a quid. To split."

He chuckled, could practically hear her grinning too on the other end. Then he noticed something. Her voice had been echoing on her end, and he could hear water sloshing about...

"Mins, you still in the bath?" Silence. "You still in that bikini you mentioned on Twitter?"

She groaned. "No, Farm Boy, get your head out of the gutter -"

"Oh, so you're not wearing anything then?"

Shit. She walked into that one. "Good night, Alo." And hung up.

He grinned and pocketed his phone. Mental image for the wank bank.

* * *

><p>He'd barely heard from her for a few days. He could have counted the days on one hand, but it still marked the longest dry spell they'd had since Morocco. Eventually he gave in to… well, horniness. And… genuine concern.<p>

He knew that after the Fuck Norris gig things were well and truly fucked up. The talk had not helped, had only served to drive Mini away, and her getting utterly wasted only gave him one last night of spooning, only gave him the illusion of having her close. But then… they found out Grace was gone, completely gone, and the memory of Mini sobbing into his bare chest was no illusion.

Her mum let him in, expressed her condolences, and sent him upstairs with cups of tea, practically shoved him into her daughter's room. Evidently Shelly McGuinness didn't have a clue how to deal with her grieving daughter.

As though he had any idea either.

Mini was wrapped up in bed, awake, curtains closed against the daylight, eyes puffy and shadowed. She stared at him in silence, expressionless, but didn't object when he came forward, sat on the edge of her bed, placed the cups of tea on her bedside table.

"Hey," he greeted quietly.

She finally smiled, the weakest smile he'd ever seen on her face. "Hey," she greeted back.

Then they were both reaching for each other, kissing any inch of each other they could as she tugged him under the duvet.

So much for thinking that the last time, on the floor in David Blood's house before the gig, was the last time. Mini couldn't exactly say that she'd been hoping the last time was the last time. She didn't really know what she'd been hoping for any more.

Right now though, she was hoping - really hoping - that neither of them had to move for a while. Or talk, for that matter. Right now, she was listening to Alo's heartbeat, and it was the most soothing thing she'd heard all week. It was a hell of a lot more soothing that her mother's cooing, or Liv calling and texting her, or the sound of her own thoughts. It was constant, warm, healthy, and - hopefully - not going anywhere.

Alo didn't know that, but he kept quiet all the same. He didn't know what to say anyway. What he did know what that she hadn't talked to anyone at all since they'd found out, that she hadn't really seen anyone since either. Liv had come by a few days ago, but hadn't gotten much out of her, and hadn't gotten her out of the house either. So where he was right now was as close as anyone had gotten to Mini since they all plummeted into mourning.

So he wasn't going to fuck it up. He got used to the silence, realised that for her at least it wasn't uncomfortable; her breathing was even and calm, and she wasn't tense as her head rested on his chest, didn't move away as he stroked her skin gently.

He remembered how she clung to him more than usual as he'd sent her over the edge, how she'd kissed him more than she usually did, the expression on her face as she'd gotten closer and closer. It reminded him far too much of how helpless she'd looked when she found him at the party, pilled up and coming-down badly. How relieved she was that he was there, no matter how shit she felt.

Maybe he did know why it was best to keep quiet. Words weren't going to help her right now, be they his or hers.

When she finally spoke her voice was croaky and quiet, having not been used much of late. "What's happening with Grace's funeral?"

Considering that they were completely naked, it might have seemed like a rather strange choice of conversation. Oddly, it couldn't have been more appropriate. Alo already knew that when they got dressed again, they would stop talking completely.

"I don't know," he told her. "Grace's dad went round to Rich's and asked if we all didn't attend, said he wanted it to be family only."

Mini sighed. "Makes sense," she said quietly, "he's never exactly been our biggest fan." She lifted her head ever so slightly so she could see Alo's face without lifting her ear from his skin. "What does Rich say?"

Alo sighed too. "He says let them be. I don't think he wanted to go anyway, be surrounded by Bloods and Violets. Liv's pissed though; she thinks we all ought to go anyway. She went round to their house, tried to get them to change their minds."

"Yeah, I know. I did read her texts and everything, I just..." she trailed off. Then she peered right up at him. "I did reply in the end though. Thanks for texting me."

He smiled in welcome, silently saying 'that's okay'. "What did you say?"

She looked away uncomfortably. She'd been a bit... blunt. "She wanted to figure out a plan. I told her to leave it." She swallowed uncomfortably. "I told her it's not as easy to be as angry as her."

Alo was quiet for a long time. She looked up at him again, dreading the look on his face as he no doubt tried to figure out a way of telling her she'd fucked up without losing his penis. Instead he looked thoughtful. Then he nodded, agreeing. "Yeah. It isn't."

She smiled, relieved. She'd thought she was the only one who wasn't feeling like how Liv was feeling. "What about you? Do you want to go?"

He frowned. No one had actually asked him that. "I don't know. Yes, and no. I think Rich is right, in a way, to say we should respect the family's wishes and leave them alone. But it would be nice if it wasn't just for family, that we _could_ go. More people loved Grace than just her family." Mini held him a little tighter then, but she nodded against his chest slightly. "But... funeral's are for saying goodbye. I don't want to say goodbye just yet."

He felt a tear dribble on to his chest, and he peered down. She was crying, but silently, her face stuck so expressionlessly, her eyes the only source of any emotion. He held her tighter too, buried a kiss into her hair. Alo didn't feel good when Mini cried.

"Me neither," she finally murmured. She wiped her eyes. "Me neither."

They lapsed into silence. Eventually he told her he had to go, kissed her again one last time, got dressed and left. She got up though, put on a dressing gown and went with him to the van. Once outside she didn't know what to say.

"Don't shut me out completely, okay?"

It surprised her. He didn't look needy, or pleading. He just looked worried about her. "I know about the secrecy. Just... don't lock yourself in your room. Let me come see you. It'll..." He trailed off, and then said it anyway. "It'll do us both good." He smiled when she nodded, and hugged her, relieved when she hugged him back. Then, over the rumble of the van, he called back, "oh, and tell your mum not to put Splenda in my tea again."

When she went back in it was to find her mum had vanished anyway, and the cups of tea in her room had long gone cold. The whole house felt too big, but claustrophobic.

She wished he'd stayed.

* * *

><p>It should have been funny. She should have been laughing her arse off after the new boy went right up to Alo and punched him so randomly he fell over more in surprise than the force of the punch. It was funny, in fact. "It's numbers, mate! Only numbers."<p>

But it was all wrong. If Grace had been there, they would have found out what the weird boy meant by such a fucked-up excuse. If Grace had been there, maybe they'd all have become friends with the numbers boy, simply from the drive of her curiosity.

But she wasn't. Things weren't funny without her. Liv was drinking whisky in her coffee in the canteen at college, even offering it to her in the middle of the day, and they'd all gone quiet. Nick had lost his joie de vivre since they'd gotten home without Matty, and it was more pronounced than before. He'd gotten older somehow. Fuck Norris was starting to fall apart, what with Rich escaping elsewhere with his parents - referred to as such, not Anita and Kevin for once - and Alo struggling to make it work without his best friend. And Franky would appear and disappear, be silent and speak at random. None of them were right.

And the punch... that wasn't right either. So the only reaction it got out of Mini was the flash of anger, ignored and pushed aside as swiftly as it came, at the sight of her... _friend_ getting hit for no fathomable reason.

She'd become so numb. The sudden anger felt a little frightening.

* * *

><p>His anger wasn't new. And he wasn't deaf either. No, he wasn't Mini's boyfriend. He was just Alo.<p>

He wondered why she was bothering. He'd caught the look of complete boredom on Mini's face as she danced with the tosser who was all over her arse. Did she think that if she just ignored how pointless it felt it would get better?

Why was he sitting there watching again? Far more pertinent question.

Thank God for Nick, his other brother from another mother. 'Fuck it' was exactly the attitude they needed right now.

Sort of.

Nick, bless him, did what Alo was forbidden from doing, and yanked Mini away from the tosser who couldn't dance, won the consequent staring match, and watched the loser walk away, sulking. Mini glared at them for a moment, then shrugged, the 'fuck it' attitude finally working in Alo's favour, and danced with them both.

Until Nick started to wander off, zoning out a little as he did, leaving Alo and Mini to not notice. They'd already forgotten. Liv had gone to follow her new friend, leaving Franky, who looked so lost in her thoughts she could have lost all physical form and not noticed that either.

It wasn't the way they had danced in Morocco at that party. But she still had her arms wrapped round his neck, her face was buried in his shoulder, her whole body was against his, and their hips were swaying together to the rhythm in the music, or maybe just a rhythm in their heads. He had his arms round her back, one hand low on her back, holding her close, the other higher up, holding her closer.

It felt more like a hug.

It didn't start that way. Mini had been a tease, her face pouting with confidence, her entire body moving tantalisingly. Dangling what he couldn't have in front of his nose. Except two could play at that game. He could out-stare her any day, right to the point where she didn't realise how close he was, that her arms, reaching for the sky, ticking away the beat, were inches from resting round his shoulders, that his body was so close she could feel his body heat. And then she'd just sort of given in, needing... he barely knew.

She always calmed down when it was just him. She had less to prove.

When Nick came back, bringing Franky with him, for what he thought was a group hug, Alo felt Mini tense again in his arms.

Yet, later, when they'd all gone home far too early for them, she still texted him: _Mum's out, come round?_

It would occur to him later that the question mark didn't sound like the Mini he knew. Usually the question mark was absent, and not implied either. But he wasn't stupid enough to mention it though. Well, being stupid or not didn't play much part in it. He was... well, he was busy.

Really busy. It took a little while just to get upstairs... he was pretty sure they broke something in the sofa...

He was still there in the morning, awake before her. The last time he stayed round at hers she'd told him off, though he hadn't the foggiest idea why, considering it wasn't exactly the first time. She skyped some nonsense excuse about getting caught, though why anyone would be coming round to her house at dawn was beyond him. By that point he was starting to get used to the absolute insane seesaw that was seeing-but-not-seeing Mini, considering that by the end of that brief conversation she was calling him 'Ginger-minge' again.

She did make his day though when she sent him a text later: _I forgot to say I no u were busy yesterday but cheers for coming round. It wasn't completely awful_

He just smiled at his phone for a minute, touched for once, before replying. _no worries, that's what I'm here for x_

He debated deleting the reply after that: _no that's not what you're here for. Your here to shag me then leave when I tell you to okay?_

In the end he kept it for future reference. Like right now. How much trouble was he going to be in when she woke and her walls went back up?

And he knew they'd be up when she woke up. She was having one hell of a nightmare. By the sounds of it, Grace was haunting her, and dying again in her dreams. Something finally woke her up, and when she'd finally realised that it was just him trying to make her see sense, to see that she was awake, she surprised him. Instead of turning to stone and kicking him out, she seized him into a hug, and sobbed.

She never told him to leave that morning. She didn't say a great deal at all that day. Her walls were up, but he was inside them for a while. Inside those walls he saw how tiny she felt. So he hugged her, slowly calmed her down, stuffed her in his blue cat jumper, took her downstairs because he was petrified she'd lock him out if he left her, made some tea with actual sugar, and some toast with jam, and carried on holding her as she ate. He finally got a smile out of her when she got jam on his chest and he tried to lick it off himself.

Later he deleted the text she sent with the 'your here to shag me then leave'. She'd sent something a hell of a lot better: _thanks x_

* * *

><p>Ultimately, they had Mini to blame for the idea of Morocco. She blamed the seagull. And Alo.<p>

Long story short: a seagull shat on her stomach whilst she was sunbathing on the beach. She blamed Alo because he was the one who practically kidnapped her and took her there, along with the rest of the gang. He blamed her right back; going to the beach had been her idea. He was just the one who then kidnapped them all, dragging them out with their beach shorts and bikinis, and chucked them all into the van for a drive. She still blamed him; if he hadn't dunked her in the sea to wash the bird shit off, she wouldn't have gotten her hair wet and salty and eugh and yelled, "fuck sake, we need to get out of this shitting place! Find somewhere where they _eat_ fucking seagulls!"

Now, they never established whether seagull is a Moroccan delicacy, but it all snowballed after that. Nick said Rider's dad had a luxury villa up for grabs for the summer near Marrakech. He let them all have it for cheap. After that all they needed were the flights, and booze money. The flights were sorted; Mini's mum's new boyfriend - or 'shag buddy' as Mini called him - was an air host and surprisingly keen. "Cash in while we can," Mini put it.

They all got jobs to raise the booze money. Well, 'jobs'. Liv sang lyrical for a call centre, saving crabs. The marine type, that is. Nick, Alo and Rich tried plucking chickens before they got fired. Then Nick's dad hired them to... err... fire people. That wasn't very successful either. And Alo's father paid Mini to pay her neighbours to wash his tractor.

So eventually they all applied to the Bank of Mum and/or Dad.

And off they went. Nick and Rider said they'd do an 'essentials' run on their way to the airport, and meet them at the gate, and Alo picked the girls up in the van. And Rich and Grace were lame and opted out.

Now, neither of the girls had present father figures, but they both thought the exact same thing when Alo pulled up at Mini's house.

"Fucking hell, Farm Boy, you taking the kids to Hawaii or something?"

It was mainly the shirt. The shorts didn't help either, but it was mostly the bright turquoise shirt, the type that should be banned at Customs. Alo just eyed Mini up and had one retort:

"Are you planning on moving to Morocco, Mins?" Her suitcase was on the big side. _Really_ on the big side. "Hope you packed some shorts in there."

He had to duck under her swinging hand luggage, grinning.

Awesome, two weeks with Minerva, Goddess of War. Minerva the Goddess probably didn't wear really short red summer dresses though. The roman gladiator sandals fit though.

She really did have great legs though. No, shut it, you idiot...

Alo stopped staring and leapt back into the driver's seat, stuck his sunglasses on and waited for the girls to get in.

It took a while. Liv had no trouble getting her bag into the back of the van. Mini's bag on the other hand... It took a minute for Alo to stop laughing out of the window before observing his manners, got out and helped her. "Fuck me, Mins, I'm sure they have bloody kitchen sinks in Morocco..." She kept silent. She did glare at him though. He was helping her after all. "What do you have in here?"

"Shoes," Liv answered. "And hair product. Otherwise it's going to be frizz circus. Remember what it looked like at the beach?"

Yes. She might as well have been electrocuted after he dunked her. She didn't talk to him for the rest of the day after that.

Finally they heaved the bloody thing in, with Liv pulling and the two of them pushing. It wasn't just that it was heavy, its shape was very un-van-friendly. And then he was shoving Mini in after it, jumping into the front, insisted that they listen to shit on any of Bristol's local radio stations before leaving Bristol and the UK behind, and drove off as the girls whooped when some X Factor's Got Talent bullshit boy band came on. The two girls climbed into the front sang along to the lyrics as badly and as loudly as they could, until he sang too.

Fuck it, they were on holiday, and he was wearing a turquoise shirt that clashed badly with his red hair. Weirder things could happen.


	7. Chapter 7

**And for the rest of Episode 3...**

**I'm slightly pissed off, by the way. The Document Manager crashed just as I'd written something I was really bloody proud of, and it didn't manage to retrieve what I wrote, so had to write it again. Very, very annoyed. Particularly as it was 4am when that happened. Hopefully I managed to remember it well.**

**Otherwise, here you are.**

* * *

><p>Fucking funniest thing she'd ever seen. The local news would never be so awesome.<p>

"And it was here, at this industrial estate used for illegal youth parties, that over 15 grams of meow-meow were confiscated in one night. When we found this young, unemployed man asleep on the pavement, he claimed to have been awake partying for over 18 hours. Now we ask ourselves: are Bristol's youth going too far?"

Mini's eyes widened as it changed to Alo, clearly still a bit high but on the slow path to come-down kingdom, talking utter, utter bollocks.

"I think you're well wrong there, actually, like, 'cos err... at the end of the day, like, err, y'know, who... who's... who's... who's the ones out there... doing war on people, at the end of the day?" He scoffed, mad as a hatter. "Not me! It's you lot! Yeah!"

She burst out laughing, and laughed again when Nick appeared too, acting like he was a bloody rapper or some shit next to Alo, who was just staring like an idiot at the camera.

"The youth, yeah... the you -" he got distracted by Alo, a bit concerned at his mate's silence and staring. "- th is the... youth is the..." He just trailed off entirely.

The reporter continued over shots of the two boys just sitting around, still out of it. Like a pair of tossers. "We asked these two young men: are today's youth just misguided, or are they wasted youth?"

Nick started them off, sounding very important. And twatish. "No, but... that's the point, right? That is... the point is to make your minds up, for once in your lives, you bunch of f***s."

Alo looked at him after a second, and then turned back to the camera. "Actually, can I do mine again? I didn't-I didn't know we were allowed to say 'f***'."

Mini laughed sporadically for the rest of the day after that as the news clip popped into her head repeatedly. Alo even popped round a little while later, his pupils still wide as saucers, looking for his van because he couldn't remember where he parked it. She just laughed in his face.

"You saw it then?" He turned around and headed back in the direction he came in.

"Alo, wait, stop!" She yelled after him, still laughing. She grabbed her keys and went after him. She did at least help him back to the pub where he'd parked the van. Even though she spent the whole time referring to him as 'young, unemployed man' and carried on laughing at him whilst he told her what little he could remember about being pounced on by the news crew. And she kind of hugged him when he moaned in despair when she told him that no one would be forgetting it for a long, long while. He still gave her a lift home though. At that point his mother called him, having also seen the news. So he hid at her house for the night, and most of the next day, sleeping on the floor, not wanking in case she slapped him again. She'd stopped laughing at him so much by the morning, she just started laughing with him as he ranted about how the news had completely distorted what had been a lovely speech about how they were all fucking awesome, specially Mini, of course, and all the old people were just jealous they weren't young right now too.

He liked making her laugh. He knew he was genuinely being funny when she laughed like that, 'cos the rest of the time she'd just sort of look at him like he was an idiot. He'd gotten used to that though.

He left when they found the remix on youtube and it reduced Mini to the floor in tears of laughter. Later she sent him a text: _is that how you sound when you wank off? who-who-who-WHO! :-P x_

_Wouldn't you like to know? ;-) x_

* * *

><p><em>"Grace?"<em>

_She looked so beautiful. Particularly when she looked up and smiled at her._

_"Hey, white bitch!"_

_They were on the beach in Morocco. The party was still going, and the sun was setting. Or was it rising? Mini couldn't tell. "Gracie, love, you're..."_

_"Dead?" Grace smiled, understandingly. "Yeah, I know. It kinda sucks a bit."_

_Mini stared at her, incredulous. "A bit?"_

_"Yeah. I mean, it would have been nice to have stayed in Morocco a bit longer. And I never finished my music coursework for the start of term. I know Rich finished it for me and it sounds beautiful, but it's still cheating!" She whispered the last, as though her music teacher was going to find out. She giggled for a moment. "Will you make sure Mum and Dad listen to it? And get that photo album you made for me? Ooh!" She showed off her nails, pretty in pink. "Pauline did them for me! Thanks, Mins!"_

_Mini didn't get it. "Yeah, I'll make sure he gets everything."_

_Grace studied her face for a moment, and smiled again. She was all smiles today. "I had a really good day though. You know, before the car went over. You're not the only one who had a _really_ good morning that day."_

_Mini's eyes widened, and for a moment she was going to deny everything. Except..._

_"Don't lose him, Mini." Grace told her, suddenly stern. "I know you miss me, and it's the shittiest time to start something new with him, and that it's Alo and he's a silly banana anyway, but seriously; don't lose him. You make him happy and he makes you happy. Just like I make Rich happy and Rich makes me happy." Then she seemed sad. "Made."_

_Mini started crying. "Gracie, I'm so sorry..."_

_But Grace was smiling again. "Shhh, Mins. I'm sorry I can't be there with you guys too. I miss you all too. I'm going to miss out on a lot. But everything's so beautiful. I envy you guys. When you'll see that everything's beautiful too, you'll all have each other, you'll all see it together." Her eyes widened. "And no, that's not some metaphor for when you guys die too. I mean it quite literally. You'll all see that you're all still you, and you're beautiful, and you'll see that Alo's still Alo, and he's... well, not beautiful, wrong word for a boy, but he's..." She shrugged. "Worthy." She took her best friend's hand in hers, swung it a little. "I have to go now."_

_Mini grabbed Grace's hand back. "No, don't go, stay!"_

_Grace hugged her friend, but Mini couldn't feel it, couldn't feel that she was there. "I'd love to, but I have to go. The truck's waiting." She pointed up the hill to where Matty's white truck sat._

_Mini grabbed Grace's hand again, but it slid out of her grip. "No, Gracie, please!"_

_"Tell Daddy and Richard I love them both."_

_She couldn't stop her, why couldn't she stop her, why wasn't Grace not stopping herself? "Gracie!"_

_When Grace turned, she wasn't smiling any more. Her face was bruised up, and she wasn't wearing the gorgeous blue beach-dress she'd worn in Morocco, but one of the horrible Avon hospital gowns. And when Mini looked down she wasn't at the beach, she was at Grace's house, and Professor Blood was sitting on the bottom step, and he was saying... he was saying..._

_"Actually, she died yesterday afternoon... yesterday afternoon... yesterday afternoon... actually... actually... actually... I'm very sorry to say..."_

Then she woke up, freaking out.

She wasn't in Morocco. She wasn't at Grace's house, she wasn't there at all. She was in her bed, her own bed. And Alo was there.

Alo... He'd stayed. He'd stayed. He'd...

She threw herself into his arms without even questioning it.

She really wanted to tell him why she was so upset, that she'd dreamt of Grace. Evidently she didn't need to tell him; she must have muttered Grace's name in her sleep. She couldn't say much anyway; when Mini sobbed, she could barely breathe let alone speak. She finally calmed down enough to speak, after Alo had patiently shushed and stroked her hair and spoke to her softly, soothingly. He just let her cry it out, rather than tried to stop her. No biscuits.

She felt didn't want him to leave after that. So she kept her mouth shut, knowing that if she said anything it would probably be something snarky and bitchy, something defensive. She felt drained anyway. She didn't want to say anything, and he seemed to accept that. So she happily put on his jumper, liking how it smelled of him, and ate toast again, never letting go of his hand, grinning slightly behind his back as he tried to do things one-handed. She almost giggled when he tried to lick jam off his own chest after she dropped her toast on him. She wiped it off for him, licked her finger clean. Squirmed a little under the heat of his gaze after that, fiddled with his lucky shoe string and heart charm around his neck. She wasn't exactly in the mood. For once.

She wasn't really sure what mood she felt now.

After he reluctantly left, taking his jumper with him, she stared at her phone for a long time, wanting to call him back. At first she was waiting for him to text her, call her, something. Then she was just trying to think of what to say. She didn't really know what she could say.

So she just said 'thanks'. She didn't even think about the x.

* * *

><p>It was a very odd concept, the trusting-the-numbers malarkey. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. Nick seemed up for it, though his choice of options were a bit extreme:<p>

1) Hang myself (complete with a hangman illustration)

2) Get into heroin

3) Swallow my tongue

4) Find, catch and eat a shark

5) Steal Bristols biggest diamond

6) Run away

Alo hadn't noticed anything about suicide on Alex's list.

His jaw still fucking hurt though. It was still a bit fucked-up, to be honest. Compared to that, Nick wanking himself stupid sounded normal.

What was a hell of a lot more fucked up though was the tosser standing on the chair for his announcement. "Can I have your attention, please! Everyone! Everyone, yeah?

"Just to let you know, this afternoon there'll be a memorial service for Grace Blood, who tragically died as a result of a tragic accident. I'm sure it would mean a lot to her if you could attend.

"These are bloody difficult times, yeah but, if we talk about it, we'll get through this, as a community, together. Yeah?

"And there's one more thing: refurbishment is finished on the squash courts, so they'll be opening again from tomorrow. Thank you."

Fucking prick.

There was silence over the group. Then, Nick started it off. "So..."

"Well, we're not fucking going, that's for sure," Liv decided.

Mini's head twitched. "So you decide for all of us? Thanks!" She bit sarcastically.

Alo turned to her, spoke quietly, "I don't think she meant it like -"

"Did he even know her?" Liv interrupted. "We're not going."

"Maybe we should, y'know, should show face or something," Nick said, uneasily.

"Better ask for her permission," Mini said bitterly.

"What's your problem?" Liv burst at her.

"Who's got a problem?" Mini asked innocently, her voice low, even a little croaky. She didn't really sound like herself. "Not you. Anyway, you're out every night with Mr. Head Fuck here."

"Don't say that," Liv said, hurt.

"Yeah, tomorrow will probably mess with your busy social schedule."

That hit a bit too hard. "Fuck you, Mini!" Liv left, her voice on the edge of breaking. Alex followed after her fairly swiftly, whilst Nick shrank into his seat.

And Alo carefully measured his words. Next to him, Mini shifted uncomfortably. He didn't even need to look at her to know she was remorseful, that she hadn't meant it to go that far, to sting that much.

"Go after her."

Mini turned to him, her face pale. He didn't even turn to look at her. He couldn't. He felt so tired of it all, all the fucking mess. "Go after her," he repeated. "She needs you." He sighed. "You need her too."

She kept her eyes on him for a while, wondering whether he'd look up at her, hoping that he would. When he didn't she got up, followed his advice, put her hand on his shoulder as she went. He did look up at her hand, smiled weakly at it, and then watched her back as she left to find Liv.

_I need you too._

* * *

><p>Fuck. She hadn't gone there to be more bitchy. She hadn't. But it came out anyway.<p>

But her blood had run ice cold again when she saw her best girlfriend crying with someone else, the weird guy who'd crash-landed into their lives. Who was now hurting Liv more too.

"Liv!" He spluttered out as he pulled away from her kiss. "I didn't get round to telling you about me: I'm gay."

From the door, she saw the fresh wave of betrayal wash over Liv's face. Saw her get angry again. "Stop it! Stop fucking with my head!"

"I thought maybe you knew -" Bullshit.

"No, you didn't think that!"

"I was gonna tell you -"

"You're a spineless little shit. Can't stand up to your dad, can't sort out your own fucking life, you used me!"

"I've just never had a proper mate before!" He excused. Not good enough.

"What? What? Who said I was your mate, you twat!"

"Who the fuck are you anyway?" Mini interjected, her voice hard as an iceberg. "We don't _know_ you, we don't _need_ you." _Fuck off_. Alex heard the unspoken words, and left, brushing past her. She heard him start to sprint away. She turned back to Liv, who was still crying at the mirror, and couldn't get the ice to melt. "Bit stupid," she pointed out.

"Leave me alone."

Fuck. Things just couldn't get better. She didn't know how to make things better. So she did as she was told, and left Liv alone.

Until the memorial service. She half expected her to not be there, but she was glad she was, smiled as she went to stand beside her, and watch the absolute farce.

And it was a farce. But she still couldn't find it funny. It was just fucked up. Completely fucked up.

"There are things we want to say..." Steve, the tosser organising this sham, pulled out a keyboard from the side, set it up. "Sometimes..." Even by the door, hidden behind a couple of other complete strangers, she heard Liv mutter 'oh Christ'. The prick was pulling out a microphone. This was going to be bad... "Words aren't enough."

It was bad. It was really bad.

"_And I've looked (and I've looked) for you everywhere (everywhere), From New York to Devon (from New York to Devon), But I know I'll see you if you come down, As an angel from heaven!"_

Oh God help them.

"_You're an angel (ooooh!) from heaven (oooh!), A graceful angel forever (ever ever ever ever)_."

Some twat had lit his lighter and was waving it in the air. This wasn't fucking Elton John, for fuck sake.

"_You're an angel! (You're an angel, a graceful angel) A graceful -_"

Thank God for Franky, a not-so-graceful angel. She marched to the front and yanked the keyboard away from Steve, nicely interrupting the crap.

"She fucking hated you, you moron!" She yelled at him. "She told me you showed her your dick!" She fell over, killing the sound, but unfortunately not quite depriving Steve of his keyboard.

"Franky!" Mini quickly went to her friend's side, pulled her back to her feet as Steve spluttered like an idiot. Or pervert, as it turned out.

"Alright, that's a bloody lie, I-I never... it was an accident, she saw it accidentally, and -"

Liv butt in. "I'll take that." And she took his keyboard from him and smashed it to pieces before turning on the stunned crowd before them, incensed. "What the fuck is wrong with you all? What the fuck!"

"Liv!" Mini cried, trying to bring her friend back to her senses. It clearly didn't work. Liv started pulling her dungarees' straps down.

"You wanna remember something, yeah? You want some fucking fond memories to wank over? Well, remember this!" The crowd gasped and cheered at the sight of Liv's boobs so suddenly on display, until she yanked her top back down, glaring at everyone in front of her. "Fucking wankers."

And then she marched out.

Franky turned to Mini. "I think Grace would have liked that."

Mini couldn't help smiling. "Oh yeah. Liv's always had top tits."

She turned to Franky, and finally, they both giggled. Mini threw her arm round Franky's shoulders and the two girls walked out together as the crowd started to break apart, the pomposity of it all no longer keeping them. "We're alright, aren't we Franks?"

Franky looked at her for a moment and smiled reassuringly. The two girls hadn't really spoken in a long time, they'd both had their heads in the clouds for so long. But they both kind of knew that they were better off in their own individual clouds for the time being. Eventually they'd float back down to Earth, and be out there together. But right now, everything was too fucked for that. "Yeah. We're alright, Mins."

* * *

><p>He didn't really see her much for a few days. He texted her, to check she was alive, to see whether she was up for anything without actually asking, and she always replied, eventually. He got the impression she needed some space for a bit, but with an anchor.<p>

He missed her, the Mini he knew so well. This Mini wasn't the same. She was... hollow. They all were, or were bursting with emotions they didn't know what to do with, like Liv and her anger. But Mini was the opposite. Grace had taken the life out of her.

He was almost surprised when the taxi picked her up, decked out for the mystery party, her face like stone but at least she was moving. The memorial service, which he'd been told he should have been at after all, seemed to have done a bit of good perhaps. Just a bit.

"So, what are we here for?"

"This had better be a pretty fucking decent party," Mini commented when they arrived at their destination, a little confused about where they were meant to be going.

Then they saw Captain Alex on his boat. "Looking good so far," Nick commented too.

Yep, damn right. They had booze, magic white powder, and tunes. The weather was crap, but oh well. Alo concentrated - if that even made sense - on getting high as a kite on the kick of the chemicals he was snorting, and enjoyed being master of the iPod plugged into the speakers.

Then all of a sudden he was brought back to earth when he heard his name being called out in need. "Alo, Alo!" He jerked his head up, shocked, certain he was dreaming, or it was the Mandy. Was she really calling for him? "_Alo_!"

Liv had her hand over her mouth in shock, staring at Alex like he was insane. By the time Alo got to Mini she was white as a sheet, her hands shaking as she clung to him, needing to be kept safe from something. Just... from what? He stared at Liv and Alex for an explanation as he rubbed Mini's back, trying to calm her down. He was doing that a lot lately, being there for her. "Hey, it's okay, it's okay, it's... oh holy shit, Jesus!" Nick had just lifted the lid on the trunk, and Alo nearly tripped as he instinctively backed away, turning as though to protect Mini from what he'd seen.

"What's going on? Alex? _What the fuck_?" Nick asked, unable to comprehend any of it anymore than the rest of them could.

It had taken a while to unclasp Mini's hands from him, lead her back to the group. She was still frozen solid, but she was a little steadier. But why the fuck were they on a boat, out at sea, with a dead body?

"Gran didn't want to go where she was told, so she went somewhere else instead," Alex explained. "That's it."

That did not explain things. "Oh, 'that's it'? What a relief!" Alo said sarcastically. Because that didn't explain anything. It didn't explain why they were there, with a dead person, another dead person... only this one was old, and it was her time, not Grace who had been young, and shouldn't have had to go anywhere at all.

"You said you weren't allowed to go to Grace's funeral," Alex continued, but the point hit too hard, reminding them of very sore bruises.

"You don't get to say her name, gay-boy," Mini said, her shaking but sharp words actually voicing a mutual feeling. What did this guy know about their Grace? "This isn't her."

"Will you help me?"

Alo stared at him, incredulously. "You've gotta be kidding me!" He knew what Alex was asking. No, no fucking way. Mini was right. This wasn't Grace. This wasn't their friend.

"I'm asking, alright? I'm asking for a bit of help."

Alo turned to Nick, hoping to see his thoughts reflected. This was too fucked up, even for them. But then...

"Yeah, let's do it," Franky spoke up.

"What?" Nick questioned, not believing his ears.

"Just help him, you idiots!" Liv burst out.

So the three boys pushed the make-shift coffin to the edge of the boat, and waited for Alex to say his last piece. But to their surprise, he read aloud from an old, bent up postcard. "_My dear, the weather is turning and I'm scared for this leaky old tub. But I have to take the odds whatever they are. Life's a gamble, Honey Chuck, you win and you lose, but I know you'll wait for me until I round Cape Horn and sail in on the tide to hold you tight. Always yours, William_."

For all of them, it made them think of different things. Of how much their lives had changed without Grace with them. Of how they'd have to live the rest of their lives without her there, for the good days and the bad. They thought of Rich, wherever he was right now, and how once he'd maybe said things like this to Grace, no doubt thought that he'd never stop saying things like that to her because the future just meant more good happy days, and how much it must hurt, knowing he could never tell her he loved her again. And they all thought of how they didn't really know anymore whether they'd all be waiting for each other for the days when they didn't feel like they'd been losing for so long, and so much, for the days when they all started winning again. They'd all drifted away so badly, drifting on their grief.

Just before Alex gave one last push, Franky spoke for all of them. "If you see our friend, tell her we miss her."

Alo didn't stop Mini dashing away. This was the funeral none of them had been allowed to attend. This was their chance to say goodbye, even if it was by passing a message through someone else that they hadn't known. They all really needed to say goodbye. But Mini wasn't ready for that, and none of them had the right to force her to face that.

So he helped Alex, and watched the trunk bob up and down in the sea.

"Umm... is it supposed to float like that?"

"I don't know," Alex answered. Then he raised his hand, making them look at him a bit oddly, and fired at the coffin. It worked, and his gran sank out of sight to the depths.

Alo turned away, feeling both heavier and lighter than before. He went and found Mini, sitting on the deck, her knees drawn up under her chin, and sat next to her, instinctively put his arm round her as she leaned into him, not remotely caring what people thought of them. They rocked a little with the boat on the choppy sea, said nothing. They had no words.

He watched as Franky called Matty's voicemail - it really wasn't hard to figure out who she'd call at a time like this - and said the only words she could manage, watched as she cried with grief for a little while. Then she came over and joined them, sitting opposite, sharing the silence. Mini reached out her hand, and Franky took it, linking them all together as Nick steered them home.

* * *

><p>1) Tell him I...<p>

2) Tell them I...

3) Tell him to let go. Now.

4) Ask him to come home with me.

5) Ask him to never leave me again.

6) Run away.

* * *

><p>For someone who'd never flown, Alo was looking... not exactly calm, 'cos he was giddy as a kid, but he definitely didn't look nervous or anything. It was all part of a bloody awesome adventure to him. It was kind of cool.<p>

Mini didn't believe it for one second.

He'd dragged her and Liv into HMV in Duty Free to look at album covers. He wasn't interested in getting any CDs; they were the children of Spotify and had iPods, not Walkmans. It was just the cover art he was interested in, and band names. He was still set on Hungry Monkey Anus, but due to popular demand, they were going to change it. They just didn't know what to yet.

So HMV was research, and he was going to text ideas to Rich back home. Liv was at the listening station, nodding to the beat through the headphones, and Alo and Mini were looking for the worst and best band names they could find. Except Alo was much better at this game, so she was just watching and listening.

Secretly, she kind of liked Hungry Monkey Anus. It didn't sound like a band that Rich would be in, but it definitely sounded like a band that Alo would be in. Not surprising then that Alo had come up with it, and Rich had vetoed it.

As though sensing she was a little out of her depth, Alo flung his arm over her shoulders and dragged her out, yelling at Liv to meet them at the gate when it was boarding time.

"Come on, McGuinness, I need your help with something." And dragged her into Boots. "Now, as you're also a member of the species _homo frecklus_, you can advise me with sun block so I can hopefully come back sexily tanned, rather than red as your top-dress-thing."

She smirked, but feeling more in her element she immediately started scouring the shelves, thrusting items into his arms. He needed better than factor 15, so he didn't have to constantly reapply it, 'cos he was a boy and boys don't remember to do stuff like that, and he needed after-sun for the very likely case that he got burnt anyway, and...

He wasn't listening anyway. He was listening to her talk, just not to what she was actually saying. But she was having a better time debating between Banana Boat, Garnier and Boots own brand than she was listening to him go on about bands that she'd never heard of and didn't care to hear of. Besides, it wasn't like he was going to be doing all that much stuff for the band on holiday. Sizzling like bacon however was on the itinerary, so rather than bore the fuck out of Mini, they now could talk about what they wanted to do in Morocco.

Whatever took his mind off the fact that soon he'd be fucking flying. No matter how cool he pretended he was about it, it was still a fucking big deal. Man had no evolved their own wings yet; it was completely unnatural. Hell, Mini had been telling him about crappy holidays in Turkey that her mum had dragged her to, and even she didn't particularly like flying. "It's take-off that's the worst. There's always a bit when it's going up and then it feels like it drops before climbing again. Ugh, horrible. And turbulence. And landing in shitty weather. All fun."

Yay...

At check-in Mini had insisted on getting a window seat, Liv the aisle, leaving Alo in the middle - Nick and Rider hadn't turned up yet, but fuck it, they weren't waiting, knowing Rider they'd end up missing the flight entirely. As it turned out, the two boys had to sprint to the gate, and had spluttered into random seats at the back. And also as it turned out, Mini shoved Alo into the window seat - so he could watch, she said - and, when his breathing got a bit too heavy for normal, she quietly held his hand. Surprised, he turned to her; she had her eyes closed, iPod earphones in, but he knew that smile. It was Mini's 'I'm doing a good deed, shut up about it' smile. So he smiled too, and watched as the ground fell away.

When the dodgy drop came, her fingers squeezed his too.

Liv never noticed: she was chatting up the gap year boys across the aisle.


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry we're running late, folks :-S writer's block. I blame Alo's complete absence from the last episode. Booooo!**

**Right, now then. First scene was good fun to write, was thinking of including it later, but it works considering what else has sprung into my funny imagination. The end scene feels like a long time ago now, wrote it very early on, enjoyed it immensely, I hope you all do too.**

**The in-between stuff however... well, what the hell was I going to do without Alo's cute little face not appearing at all this week? Bloody sucks, I tell you! So, I turn to the Lock-In, and the Lock-In provided well. Please turn to ALOver The Place for the source of these scenes. And also, because the photo at the top is fabulous.**

**I'm not happy with FanFiction again. Sodding thing has crashed on me twice this week. I'd written something great as well the second time, and it was really effing difficult to write, so replicating it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Really gutted actually :-( I hope what I have written is okay though.**

**Now then: Writer's Block, shoo.**

* * *

><p>"Get me a shot, Farm Boy."<p>

Alo looked up at Mini in surprise and then signalled to the barman obediently. He still wasn't quite used to the fact that Mini McGuinness actually spoke to him these days.

It was Grace and Rich's not-wedding reception. Their shoes were all muddy from the trek through Somerset, and the sprint to the merriment Alo had sniffed out. The group was still reuniting properly; Grace was playing with Rich's hair, trying to get used to having Justin Bieber for a boyfriend; Franky and Matty were slow dancing in the corner; Liv was copying Nick's limp and dancing some strange hobbled dub-step beat to the indie band that was actually very cool for a bunch playing in a field in the middle of nowhere. And it really was in the middle of nowhere, even Alo hadn't the faintest clue where they were anymore.

The barman told him he'd run out, and needed to go to the truck to get some more booze, and Alo just shrugged nonchalantly.

"Did you manage to stop bad things from happening?" He asked. The silence was a bit awkward.

She lifted her head, thought for a moment, and then nodded, proud. Shit had gone a bit weird, but they all pulled through and got to where they needed to be. "Yeah, guess we did."

He smiled at her, also proud. "See? Only McGuinness can."

She smiled back. It was refreshing, someone having faith in her like that. Considering that she'd spent the last few years either blanking Aloysius Creevey or tearing him a new one, he was an unlikely source.

"You're actually alright, aren't you?" She said, smiling knowingly, echoing his own words back to him.

He grinned, remembering. "'Alright'? I'm fucking awesome, Mins!"

She laughed, making him smile. "Don't push it, Alo."

Silence descended over the two of them, a little less awkwardly this time.

"Is it actually Minerva?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Not telling, _Aloysius_."

He grinned. "You know who Minerva was, right?" She shook her head. "She was the Roman Goddess of War. One tough lass, she was. Apparently, she was born out of her dad's head, bit weird. She also created spiders." Then he just smiled. "She was also the Goddess of Wisdom, amongst other things. Very clever bird." He shrugged at her. "Fits."

Mini had received a lot of compliments in her time. Some nice, some... not so nice. This was genuinely nice. She actually blushed, rather than pretending to blush. Their shots arrived, and he toasted to her before they knocked them back, pulling the same face at the bite of the cheap alcohol and skittles flavour. She didn't tell him where 'Mini' came from. She preferred the mystery. Besides, she seriously doubted her mother knew who the fuck Minerva was. That kind of geeky shit was... well...

Kinda cool.

"Alo?" He nodded, listening. "Where the fuck does 'Aloysius' come from?"

He burst out laughing. "Blame Mumgabe." Who? He signalled to the barman to get them two more shots, silently toasted to her again as they downed them again, wincing once again. Fuck, those things were awful. "Do you remember when I gave you and Grace a lift back from Keyon's party last summer?"

She winced again, this time not the sharp taste of vodka, but the bitter taste of remorse. Yes, yes she did. She didn't think that she would, but she did. She remembered being a complete bitch to him whilst he was being very nice and giving her a lift home, something he didn't owe her.

"I think I told you that the plague was a slightly less horrifying prospect than having to spend any more time with you..."

He raised his eyebrows, evidently surprised she did remember. His face evened when he saw how awkward she looked, trying to figure out a way of apologising without, y'know, saying 'sorry'. "Well, if you've changed your mind and you want a lift into college from now on..." He let the 'you're more than welcome' say itself in silence.

Touched once again, she tilted her head to the side, considering something. Then she stepped forward, and kissed him gently, sweetly at the corner of his mouth. "You're alright, Alo." She told him, echoing her words again. But as his eyes widened in confusion, she raised a finger warningly. "Don't over think it, Farm Boy. Running away with yourself is what earned you the plague comment, alright?"

He chuckled, grinned teasingly. "Can't promise you that, darlin'." But before she could react he'd stepped back, a wild happy look on his face. "Right! Fuck it! One more of these skittles-shit-shots, then I'm dancing. You in, McGuinness?"

She grinned in the affirmative, though he was already ordering. For a moment she admired the flame in his hair colour, how similar his eye colour was to hers, how expressive his face was, how alive he always seemed to look when she saw him. The boys all looked absolutely awful in their Beatles suits, and Alo was no exception, but she could just imagine that once out of them, Alo probably wasn't the scrawny kid she used to pick on anymore. She tried to imagine what he'd look like in some decent clothes, stuff that wasn't home knit and in need of patching up. She couldn't imagine it properly though, anything that came to mind just looked wrong. She couldn't really imagine him without his funny old jumpers.

Except now they weren't something to ridicule in front of the whole school anymore. They'd been upgraded to tease-material amongst their friends. 'Their friends'; it made her smile.

He'd always be Farm Boy. And, though she didn't know it yet, he was right: he was awesome. But there, at Grace and Rich's not-wedding reception party, dancing like loons, his arm round her shoulders like comrades in arms, they were alright.

* * *

><p>She was not alright. She blamed delayed sea sickness. And the shock of seeing Alex's deceased grandmother in all her 'glory'. She blamed the sugary sweets she'd been eating too much of lately. And she blamed Alo for giving them to her in the first place. Honestly, just because she said she really fancied some didn't mean he had to bring some round.<p>

It was late in the day, and she hadn't gotten out of bed yet. She'd woken early, very early - another thing she blamed on Alo, and his Farm-Boy country habits - went back to sleep, woke up and moaned on Twitter, but when no one really responded to it she went back to sleep again, woke up past lunch time. She'd run out of the shrimps that Alo had brought round, and she wasn't sure what else she felt like eating, but either way she didn't want anything enough to get out of bed. She had her laptop next to her, and she was lying on her side, surfing the web. The curtains were closed against the sinking sun, and her mum was out.

Some more people had put condolence messages on Grace's Facebook and Twitter. She wasn't sure what else she'd done with her day.

_what ya up to?_

Skype binged at her happily, rousing her from the grey clouds of her thoughts. It was a good question. One she wasn't sure she wanted to answer. 'Nothing' was essentially the answer, but there was no chance in hell she was actually telling him that. He'd just read that as an invitation. She wasn't even sure whether she was in the mood to deal with him at all today. She didn't want to deal with anything today.

_not really in the mood for it farm boy_

He took a while to reply, which was unusual. Normally he was always so eager, she could always just imagine his fingers flying over his keyboard, hitting send without thinking. A few minutes later she would wish he hadn't replied at all.

_its not all sex sex sex u no. I do have other talents._

What the fuck? What the fuck did that mean? Of course it was all sex sex sex, that was what they did. Honestly, what on earth was that about? Was he making a point? Was he being his usual retarded self and saying shit he would be better keeping shush about? What the hell did he mean by other talents? What the... what the...?

Fucking confusing men.

Mini freaked out. Was he trying to flirt with her, badly, as he usually did? But if so, where was the usual ;) that followed? What on earth was he trying to say?

Fuck sake, why couldn't he keep things simple? Sex was simple. It scratched an itch, for both of them. She got to have a good time. Lately everything was so fucked up and just fucking wrong that this was about the only thing that was pain-free right now. She didn't have to do all the girlfriendy bollocks, or actually give a shit. Anything more would just be... it would just get messed up because everything else was messed up, and it would just be another thing to stress about and she had enough on her plate.

Instead, she got to have really good sex. And even a giggle on occasion. Which was fine.

So why was he saying shit like this?

Was she reading too much into this?

_I promise u whatever this is it's very little else. But not now. Im asleep so fuck off_

She turned over, faced away from the laptop, angry with him. No, angry with herself. But more with him. What the fuck was he playing at? He wasn't her boyfriend. And lately he'd started to freak her out far too much. She hadn't ever quite realised just how tactile he was, how affectionate he was when she was coming down from the peaks he'd take her to. No, he didn't have the right to do that. That's not what he was there for.

No matter how good it felt.

It took a minute for her to peek over her shoulder when her laptop binged again.

_actually I just wanted to let u no that id managed to steal u a sweety treasure trove but now…_

She smiled a little. Maybe he was just being a silly sod. Maybe she had read too much into it.

_quite frankly I don't think u deserve my delicious selection…or my sweet dick..._

She should have grinned. It was just Alo being Alo. Instead... instead it twitched at something she didn't want to dig out. A niggling feeling perhaps. _I don't think you deserve..._ No, let's not go there.

_mins?_

She debated changing her mind. The day had been so useless so far. But if he came round she'd need to shower, because bed hair worked better on him, for her it was a no-go zone. She wasn't sure whether she could really be arsed to get up. She was currently safe, alone under her duvet. She could sleep in tomorrow again, rather than get woken up at dawn because he was still managing to worm his way past her 'no-staying-round' rule. He'd probably thoroughly annoy her for the rest of the day, just waking her up with that blissful grin of his.

She really needed to see his grin actually...

_ive got shrimps?_

_you've got half an hour to come deliver them to me so get ur shit together but leave the sweet dick at home k? x _Her fingers flew over the keyboard and she'd hit send before she could think about it, and jumped out of bed to dash to the bathroom. She had to shower, dry her hair, put make-up on, put some nice knickers on...

An hour later the shrimps were forgotten about, her hair was still damp, her face only just toned and moisturised, and she had no clothes on because he gave her fifteen minutes instead, and the sweet dick was sending her to heights the sugar never could.

* * *

><p><em>ok I no u sed no to doing a sex 2nite but what if I were to tell u id just spent an hour researching back rubs on tinternet<em>

She'd been in a funny mood yesterday. Despite her snappy decline, when Alo got to her house - early, traffic was good, he wasn't exactly going to wait in the van outside, was he? - after she'd had a go at him for being so early, she'd only gotten what was probably half-way through the list of things she needed to do before she suddenly grabbed him and snogged the life out of him. The towel she'd answered the door in got forgotten on the stairs, and her room was so dark he had to flick a light on so he could see her.

He was glad he did, no matter how much it annoyed her, with her damp hair and un-made face. It reminded him of their first time in Morocco, and how beautiful she was underneath all the layers she used to protect herself. It was kind of weird; being annoyed with him proved a real turn on for her. He had the bloody bite marks on his shoulder to show for it.

She was annoyed in the morning as well when she had to wake him up. Oddly, telling her that it was her fault that he'd slept in because she'd worn him out, grinning as he told her so, made her happier. Sort of.

He kind of wished he had woken up before her as usual though: by the time he had, she'd put mascara on and everything, that 'natural' look that isn't really so natural. Real faces aren't airbrushed. He liked waking up to her sleeping, freckled face.

He would also have escaped her moaning about shit, just for a little while. She moaned that sleeping next to him felt like cuddling up with a radiator on full blast, that she couldn't get back to sleep because he would shut up - despite the fact that he wasn't saying a great deal, she was - and that she had no idea what she fancied for breakfast.

So he left, and was now sitting in his tractor, gazing out over the fields at home. He was actually ahead of Mumgabe's schedule, he'd been in such a rush to be occupied and not think about the girl he'd left this morning, moaning about her back aching because she'd slept funny and that was his fault as well. He'd sent Mini a couple more texts when he stopped for lunch, just to see if she'd stopped moaning yet. She sort of had. 'Bleugh' was kind of an improvement. Saying no to round two wasn't exactly progress though.

Unfortunately he had no 3G on the fields, and he really needed Google for a bit. He'd had an idea for changing the 'no' to at least a 'fine, whatever'.

Bless Youtube. Ever insightful. Unfortunately his research didn't do much.

_id say go use that knowledge to rub ur self off as u continue to stay away from me_

Having said that, this was Mini. And it was only quarter to four. Just give her time. She couldn't get enough of him really.

When she texted again at eleven, he was still wide awake at his computer, revising his recent studies. _U still awake?_

_b there in 5 :)_

He couldn't get enough of her either. As much as the bite marks stung a little, they were also kind of hot. But she didn't bite him this time, or moan, or bitch. Guess the back rubs really worked. In the morning she was so serene she just smiled, kissed him, slowly climbed on top of him, moaned in a far more attractive manner. He was pretty happy when he finally left Mini's house, so happy that when he got stuck in commuter traffic, he didn't really think twice about the silly Lonely Island song.

You knew how lame you were when even Rider pointed it out.

* * *

><p>Fucking hell, it was hot. Mini could say what she liked about his 'English-dad-on-holiday' shirt, it was a hell of a lot better than the jumpers he'd left behind at home.<p>

Landing was fun. It was a bit weird when a few people clapped; were they meant to clap too? Even the girls had shrugged then.

Unlike at Bristol, they walked straight off the plane, across the tarmac, and into the main building, giving them all a glimpse of the country that they'd arrived in.

"Guys," Nick said slowly, "did we get the plane to Mars or something?"

It was a good way to describe what they could see, through the shimmering mirage effect. They'd all imagined the desert to be sand dunes, like out of Aladdin or something. Not the dry, dusty landscape that stretched out endlessly, something out of an old Western, minus Clint Eastwood.

"Huh," Alo went. Then he grinned. "Cool! We're fucking Martians here!" And off he went, leading the way to get their passports stamped and pick up their luggage.

Getting Mini's bag - which apparently had _just_ been under the limit - off the carousel was funny. Alo and Liv left Rider and Nick to do it. But that was funny for another reason: Rider looked very uncomfortable. And he wouldn't let Nick touch him. "Oi, Rider! Did you and your boyfriend have a fight or something?" The silence that that met was both perplexing and exceedingly amusing. Rugby types; so sensitive.

Liv found them a 'taxi'. It was just a guy and his truck, they were all a bit surprised when he charged them and showed them his Moroccan license. He was nice, friendly; he told them the best places to go, the best parties. He also told them he was studying to be a lawyer.

Then they got to the villa. The 'luxury' villa. With a 'pool'.

They all gathered at the edge of the 'pool', looked down into it, and then turned to glare at Rider.

"Erm..." Alo voiced for all of them. "Is this it?"

Rider appeared not to see the problem. "Ah, it'll be fine once we get the water on, fill it up again! Pool par-tay!"

The rest of them nodded dumbly, then all headed in separate directions to explore. The first to stop, only a second later, was Liv. "Is that ours as well?" She pointed to one of the wings of the villa.

"Yep, fucking palace!" Rider boasted.

"Where's the roof?"

The rest of the gang stopped in their tracks and turned to stare at the what Liv was pointing at. Then they all glared at Rider again for an explanation.

Again, Rider shrugged. "Dad said they'd been doing some work on it. Guess they haven't quite finished yet."

The next halt was when they got inside. There was nothing wrong with the furniture, or the cool temperature from the thick walls. It was that when Nick switched the light on nothing happened. It remained on the shadowy side. This time they didn't bother with an explanation.

Whilst the others immediately sat down in the entrance room, Mini searched through the house to claim dibs on her bedroom. Naturally. She found one room with twin beds, pushed together to create a double, another with no furniture in it at all save a trunk, another with a bunk bed that looked like the top half would collapse any minute on to the bottom, and the room on the roof. Without a roof.

She picked the first. Liv and the boys could sort the rest out themselves. She plonked her backpack on the bed and looked around her new kingdom. It was a bit sparse, but it was alright. She might have to live out of her suitcase. But there was a fair amount of floor space, more than she was used to at home, so she could line her shoes up quite nicely. There weren't many sockets, but as she'd only bought one travel adapter anyway it hardly mattered. As long as her hairdryer worked.

At that point, Liv came in. "Don't check out the bathroom."

Mini raised an eyebrow. "Why...?"

"Just... put it off, while you can."

Mini stared at her, worried, then shrugged. The villa wasn't exactly living up to the standards and expectations they'd all had in mind when they decided to jet off to it. But the journey had worn her out, so she could be a bitch about it tomorrow after she'd slept in her new bed. Speaking of which... "Bagsy," she claimed. Liv grinned, unsurprised.

"Alright. I'll let Alo know you've 'bagsied' out of the democratic ballot."

Mini snorted, and went to explore through the rest of the villa. Liv found an ancient CD player in the main room; she plugged it in, turned it on, and shrugged when it failed to show life. Must be the electrics. Mini could barely react when she did find the bathroom. She just stuck her head in quickly; the loo looked... well, just about functional. There was a sink on a table with lots of sawdust all around it. And a bathtub with a hose. She really didn't want to test it just yet. She'd do that when she wanted to shower in the morning. Right now that was a whole load of stress that could be put off until later.

The kitchen was more of the same. It wasn't finished, essentially. Alo was right though, they did have kitchen sinks in Morocco. Even fridges. He came in just as she opened it to see if there was any food left in there. Unfortunately there was; the smell of bad eggs managed to make Alo, on the other side of the room, recoil too. "Fuck, Mins, shut the door, shut the fucking door!"

She did, coughing as the smell didn't go away, was on her way out to get fresh air back in her nostrils when he grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"Wait!"

He sniffed, making her stare at him like he was a loon. Well, he _was_ a loon. "What? I think they're dead, Alo, it doesn't matter what bird laid them, those eggs aren't hatching."

He sniffed again, like the sniffer dog that went over their luggage at the airport. He started to hone in, in the centre of the room, and then dropped to the floor. He eyed up the ugly green tiles, sniffed some more, and then pulled one up. Revealing a bag underneath; a black bin bag wrapped up tight. Alo pulled it out of the tiny gap under the kitchen floor tiling, started unwrapping it. His face; it was like a kid at Christmas, hoping he'd gotten what he wanted, suspecting that he had.

And yes, he had; as Mini gawped in amazement, he whooped; it was a fuck load of weed. As the others came in to see what the fuss was about, Alo sniffed around more, pulled more tiles up. Nick and Rider joined in, ripped the rest of the flooring up: most of it was no go, but they managed to find about three ounces of very decent marijuana, a couple of bags of pills, and a fair share of white powder that tasted like un-cut coke.

Finally, the villa was a luxury pad.


	9. Chapter 9

**Right, and we continue, because I really wanted to cover the Lock-In before Monday. Mini's episode! WOO!**

**Yes, that's right. I went 'woo'. :-P**

**Lyric credits go to Elliot Gleave and his team of magic makers, I thought _Stay Awake _was an appropriate song for Skins, and I love his stuff, so I thought I would pay homage to it. Also some of the inspiration for the first scene comes from the video of _Stay Awake_, so yeah. It's good shit, peeps. As is the _Nandos Skank_, that ain't mine either. Otherwise that first scene isn't inspired by anything other than the previous scene, so I imagine it taking place not long after.**

**The end scene was very fun to write, I'm glad I came up with the Morocco thread now, definitely going to continue it, though running out of ideas. So will be spending the weekend writing more for the next lot of chapters, because I currently have run out of material for that segment. Argh.**

**Anyhoo, please read on!**

* * *

><p>"Farm Boy, where the fuck are we?"<p>

"You'll see."

He stopped, turned on the spot 360, made a sound that made her think of a confused cow. "Alo, if we're lost, don't you dare do anything weirdo crap with horse crap, for God's sake."

"No, no, I think I know... wait... bugger it." He turned back to her, squinting like a wally. She just scowled at him, actually mostly amused rather than annoyed, but it was early days in their friendship. "Yeah, not entirely sure... where... hmm."

"Alo." He stopped turning round like an aimless donkey to stare at her inquisitively. "I am wearing fucking heels. And we are in the fucking forest. Why did you tell me you were bringing me to a party and bring me to a forest?"

He turned away from her, still searching, started wandering forward. Shaking her head, she followed carefully, trying not to trip on the roots of trees and what was probably deer shit.

He'd turned up at her house at nine am that morning. Her mum, hungover to hell, had blindly let him in, lead him up to her bedroom, where he'd viciously ripped the curtains open, sat unceremoniously on the edge of her bed, shifting the weight on her mattress and whooped in her ear. Instinctively she had actually slapped him to shut him up before she'd even realised she'd been woken up and this wasn't a strange extension of a dream in which Franky had told her she should move on to the other red-head in the group. When she'd finally stopped bitching at him about lost beauty sleep - or rather, when he interrupted her bitching - he informed her that there was an absolutely ace party that day, the others were already getting ready or were en route, she had to come as well.

So when she glared at him, turned over and pulled the duvet over her head, he yanked the duvet off her bed entirely, tickled her sides until she was past annoyed and laughing instead, waited for her as she showered, dried her hair, curled her hair, did her make-up, and got dressed in some shorts and a revealing vest top over a colourful bra. She told him off again when she got to her bedroom to find him going through photos of last year's trip to Newquay, but then he just looked her up and down and summarised it very neatly:"fit!"

"Are you sure about the shoes?" He asked just before they left, suddenly halting on the stairs, making her almost trip and fall behind him. They were a little high, but she'd worn worst heels. So she told him he clearly had no fashion sense anyway, so not to question her taste in shoes. He'd sort of smirked slightly then, as though laughing at a private joke.

She got it now. Ha fucking ha. New Look heels weren't exactly designed for treks through the forests of Avon.

"Fuck sake, Alo, slow down!" She yelled after him, still struggling to walk. Her feet hurt like hell after the mile or so that they'd already gone from the random car park full of hippy vans, off the path and into the thick of the woods were the trees weren't ancient, like something out of Lord of the Rings.

He stopped completely, came back to her, still trying to stop himself from laughing. Then he did something she didn't expect: he turned her back to her and knelt down a little. "I'll give you a lift, come on."

She smiled, touched, and accepted the piggy-back ride, her arms wrapped tight around his neck, his hands secure under her thighs at his sides, her silly shoes dangling from her hand, as though he'd acquired another odd charm necklace. She didn't really pay attention to where they were joining to be honest. His hair smelt nice. His hands weren't doing anything stupid on her bare legs - she was so glad she was wearing shorts rather than a skirt - and his back felt warm against her chest. Despite it being the middle of summer in southern England, it was cool under the canopy of the trees and with the breeze; his body heat was more effective than a cardigan.

She could smell the recent rain and the muddy earth, and hear the birds chattering away around them. And...

_If we don't kill ourselves, we'll be the leaders of a messed up generation..._

"Alo?"

His back straightened a little and he stopped for a moment, hefted her weight back up so she was secure. He'd heard it too. Music...

_If we don't kid ourselves, will they believe us when we tell them the reasons why..._

"Run, monkey boy, run!" Considering that he was carrying her as well, she was surprised when he did as she told him, and started jogging a little through the trees, following the sound. It wasn't comfortable, but it did make her laugh. He had to stop every now and then, listen. They were getting closer...

_Did we take it too far? Take it too far..._

"That way!" She pointed a little to their left, also straining her eyes and ears for the way. He followed her directions, almost laughing out loud at their situation.

_Did we chase the rabbit into wonderland..._

Then they both spotted it at the same time. A tent in the distance, and moving figures around it. Mini grinned on his back. She had no idea how he found things like this, but he did. Fucking awesome.

_There's a hundred grand, will they understand_

_It was all to stay awake for the longest?_

They didn't find the others for a while. They chucked Mini's shoes into a corner, downed some shots quickly, and started dancing to the blast as a DJ started mixing his own tunes. Everyone around them was pilled up and happy. Alo was just loving the beat, and Mini was giggling at his enthusiasm, letting it pull her along, surfing on it.

It didn't feel as fun when everyone else turned up, Alo thought to himself in surprise. Nick was pilled up already too, Grace and Rich were in their own little bubble, Liv soon went off to dance with some boy, and Franky and Matty were making out in the trees. Mini was someone else entirely when it was just her and she let her guard down, when she stopped caring that people were watching. She was a gorgeous creature when she genuinely smiled, genuinely laughed.

No, she wasn't someone else. She was just Mini. Just Mini was a cool girl.

* * *

><p>It had taken over an hour to have one conversation about chicken.<p>

_dyu like nandos? X 18:45_

_everyone likes nandos stupid x 18:55_

_dyu wanna come with me to nandos? Itll b secret and everything x 19:05_

_can u guarantee me that anyone who sees us eating together wont live to tell the tale?x 19:15_

_erm…no x 19:20_

_then im afraid it's a no sweety x 19:25_

_do u want me 2 bring u a nandos? X 19:35_

_no. what if someone sees you? x 19:40_

_We could go to the one in bath instead? 19:45_

_too close to home. Im thinking more along the lines of somerset? 19:50_

_I dont think ive got the petrol 19:55_

_then I dont think I want to come 20:00_

Yet somehow the kitchen still smelt of Nandos downstairs, and they were spooning in her bed. She'd tried to be pissed off with him for coming round when she'd told him not to, but then he'd made her giggle by reciting the whole of Ed Sheeran and Example's improvised Nando's Skank, and made her burst out laughing when he'd yelled out the line "MY TONGUE IS ON FIRE!"

After that she'd shut him up by occupying his tongue herself. Except, rather than shag her against the kitchen cabinet, like she really fancied, he didn't. "Mins: chicken first, sex later." Even when she'd pouted at him he just grinned teasingly, kissed her again, far too gently, and lifted her off the counter. "Promise."

She couldn't stay mad at him for long after that; she ended up eating even faster than he did, the smell just switched something on and she couldn't stop herself. After that she could barely move for ages, so they stuck The Breakfast Club on, curled up on the sofa, and talked all the way through it. Because obviously she was Claire, but there was absolutely no way that he was Bender. Brian, maybe, but definitely not a Criminal. That was just being silly. When he ran out of arguments he just tickled her until she gave in, or rather shrieked at him that she was going to puke Nandos all over him. But it got her smiling, got her kissing him again, got her into bed again.

And now, her duvet tucked around the two of them, his face seemingly peaceful in slumber, she felt uneasy. It was all a tumble, her thoughts in her head, to the point where she couldn't catch what each of them said. She didn't really want to know what half of them said anyway. They weren't light thoughts.

She didn't think this was going to work much longer. A horrible feeling told her that things were getting too messy. She suspected that for Alo, it never really had been just about sex, but at least it mostly was about sex. He'd never had any, it wasn't like he was going to give it up. The fact that it was Mini, who was hot and happened to be a friend, was just a very big bonus. Now however...

He shifted in his sleep, his face suddenly tenser. She smiled sadly, kissed him gently, hoping it'll smooth out his frown. He murmured, opened his eyes a fraction. "Mini...?"

"Shhh," she whispered gently, "go back to sleep."

He nodded slightly, and was gone again, his head falling into the crook of her neck. His hair still smelt of him, unaffected by the grease of their food.

Suddenly she really wanted to cry. Why couldn't it be simple like this forever?

* * *

><p>This was going to sound strange, but he wasn't actually pissed off with her. He was testing something. Sort of.<p>

He wasn't used to keeping his thoughts to himself all the time. In his opinion, Facebook and Twitter were created as other means of self-expression, some of the products of the cult of individuality of the modern world. He was used to saying whatever he liked on Facebook, liking whatever random things he'd seen or heard on Youtube and going blah blah blah in his tweets. The whole secretive thing that Mini wanted was going against the tide of his nature, so he didn't even think when he posted the link to the song on his wall. It was what he was listening to, it resonated a bit with him, so he put it up. It wasn't exactly 'I'M SHAGGING MINI MCGUINNESS', no one was going to figure out he was thinking of her. She was just being paranoid. Okay...

So he let it slide, and got on with his day. Mumgabe had finally let him back into the cow sheds, so he was in there most of the day, cleaning them out, chatting to Mabel. She didn't say very much, mostly she just chewed, but she was a good listener.

"I'm just going to keep shtum, Mabs," he told the cow. "I'm busy taking care of you today, so Mins is just going to have to wait for a bit. We can't always 'hang out' whenever she wants, sometimes it would be nice if it was when I want. I'm not at her beck and call all the time. If I'm not allowed to put silly songs up on Facebook she shouldn't write about washing the dishes either. It's all I'm saying. And it would be nice, y'know, to not always be criticised. I know that's how Mini works, and I am an idiot and I do love it, but it would still be nice to... I dunno. She has said some nice stuff to me before. She even puts x's in her texts sometimes. And she calls out to me when she really needs someone. But..."

He trailed off, stared at the cow. It blinked at him. He wasn't sure whether it was amused by the strange red-haired human blabbering on in front of it, or whether it was confused, or didn't give a shit, or didn't have enough grey cells to process any of it or have an opinion or feelings about the goings on around it.

He envied the cow, either way.

"I really should just go along with it, shouldn't I? 'Cos... well... if I really piss her off, then I might never get laid again."

_I might lose her_. The thought was so awful he couldn't even voice it to the cow.

He sighed. He was finished, had been for a while, though he'd barely noticed because he was so busy talking out loud. He could smell the farm and his own sweat on him, and he really wanted a bath and a cup of tea. When he wandered back into the house he noted tiredly that Mumgabe didn't have a good word to say about all the work he'd done that day. He ran the bath, tried to shoo Rags out of the bathroom, gave up, went to go get his towel from his room. When he got back to the bathroom there was a fresh brew sitting next to the bathtub. That made him smile. "Thanks Ma!" He called down the stairs, and heard a grunt of acknowledgement. It was his mum. That would do.

He stripped off, sank into the hot water, hissing slightly because it was a bit too hot, but didn't do anything about it. The steam was clearing out his head, and for a good while he thought of nothing. Rags dosed in the corner next to the loo. The tap dripped. The wind whistled outside the window. He felt the water dry in his hair.

Usually he needed a joint to feel that serene.

He opened one eye when his phone buzzed with a new message. On the outside of his consciousness, so blissfully blank at the moment, he knew there was a boiling mass of emotions stirred from that message. He didn't even need to look at his phone, sitting on top of the pile of clothes, to know it was Mini. He didn't even need to look to know it was another booty call.

He let a minute go by, then soaped and shampooed up, rinsed and pulled the plug out of the bath. Finally he checked his phone. And grinned unexpectedly.

_Fine! Ur song wasn't lame. Happy?_

Yes. Yes, he was. Like he'd told Mabel earlier, Mini did not do compliments, certainly not when he was concerned. She was also too proud to say something wasn't lame when she really did think it was lame. She'd just find another way of saying that it didn't matter all that much. This was as close to the 'I dunno' and 'but' that he'd been unable to put into words to a cow.

_that's all I wanted. packing up my sweet dick and ill b with u shortly_

* * *

><p>"Right, let's draw lots for the rooms," Alo said over their first joint. They were all sitting in the empty pool, making the tough decisions now before they were too stoned to give a shit.<p>

"Ah, count me out, Farm Boy, I've bagsied mine," Mini pointed out, stretched out in her bikini already, enjoying the boys' stares. Liv smirked as Nick and Rider protested, but Alo shushed them to their surprise.

"Alright. Fair dos. We will honour the bagsy. But the rest of us, particularly us lads, we all need to decide this fair, 'cos we're all single, and someone's going to wind up on the sofa, or sharing. So." He got some rizzlas, rolled a few up to make four thin straws, and tore a bit off one of them, and held them out, their ends level out of his fist. "Let's see who's got the roof, alright?"

The other three exchanged looks, shrugged, and shuffled a bit closer. Rider picked first, as it was his dad's place, drew a long straw. Nick did the same. Alo and Liv looked at each other, and she shrugged and plucked one out of his hand and swore as the boys whooped in victory.

"At least you don't have to share with one of these tossers," Mini pointed out, grinning.

"Mini, if I get bitten by bats and shit, I'm sharing with you," Liv contended. Mini shrugged. Yeah, alright.

"Right, lads, we're sticking a mattress in the empty room, who's getting it?" Alo said, gathering the straws back up, minus one, plucking Liv's unlucky one back. Again Rider picked first, and groaned when it was too long. Nick took several deep breaths, beat his chest a couple of times, and... picked long too. Alo examined the short straw in his hand and cheered, high-fiving Liv as they and Mini laughed at the looks of horror on Nick and Rider's faces. "Well, fellas, I leave it to you to decide who gets the top bunk."

Nick and Rider exchanged a long look, and then, to the girls' surprise, came to a decision very amicably. "Whoever pulls fittest?" Nick suggested, holding his hand out to shake. Rider took it, gave it a strong, decisive pump, and then frowned.

"Who picks the fittest?"

The two boys looked at their choice of judges, then turned back to each other. "We'll get them to vote," Nick decided, and Rider nodded.

Mini shook her head in amusement. Boys were silly sometimes. She still agreed with that a couple of hours later, with the sun on the descent, thoroughly mellow, her head resting on Alo's bare stomach. He was lying parallel to the edge of the pool, and her legs were dangling over the edge from her knees. They were both watching Nick and Rider discuss the merits of the All-Blacks nonsensically, passing a joint between them. Liv was down in the pool, enjoying the echoing effect of the tiles on the tunes blasting out of her iPod.

Alo was stoned. The Moroccan weed was fairly potent, and he had a very nice high on. He didn't feel particularly self-conscious about being Mini's cushion; in fact he was playing with her hair. And staring at her tits.

They really were great tits. And he was going to have two weeks of them on view like this. Thank you, you clever chap who invented bikinis. Although he might have to teach her the benefits of sunbathing topless...

Don't get too excited, Creevey.

He passed the joint they were sharing back to her, breathed the smoke out slowly. "Did anyone bring anything for munchies?" She asked.

He chuckled, mostly just to annoy her as his stomach bobbed up and down, unsettling her dreamy head. "Nah, I think Nick and Rider brought different essentials, and I just brought Marmite."

"You know we'll probably be able to find Marmite out here, right?" She teased.

He shrugged. "But it won't be proper British Marmite."

"No, it probably will be. From the same factory, flown the same air miles, maybe not in a suitcase though." She took another puff and passed the joint back amiably. "Alo?"

"Hmm, Mins?"

"I really fancy some chips."

He started giggling, couldn't stop even when she whacked his chest for being a bad pillow. "Love, I think the chances of us finding some chips right now are about as good as mine are of finding more Marmite."

She pouted, disappointed. "I still want some chips though." She turned on to her side to look up at him. "Can we go into town for chips please, Dad?"

He pinched her, chuckling some more. She'd been teasing him about the English-dad-on-holiday look he was currently sporting non-stop, and had been calling him 'dad' since they'd sorted out the bedrooms. He had been using a proper camped up West Country accent and calling her Mabel The Cow in retaliation, and talking about sore udders from milking, just to get on her tits, but he was now too high to pull it off. Pity. He was going to try and think of a line involving selling her for magic beans at the markets in Marrakech, but actually that involved too much thinking.

Admiring the curve of her breasts as she lay on her side however took far less thinking.

"Yeah, alright." He got up unceremoniously, making her whine and laugh at suddenly losing her favourite cushion, and before they knew it they were all wandering down the road, following Alo's nose. The sun was quickly disappearing into the horizon, and there were lights in the distance. On the other side of the dry wasteland that surrounded them in all directions.

Good thing then that their 'taxi' turned up. The Moroccan wanna-be lawyer recognised them on the side of the road and stopped for them. What was meant to be just a lift became a tour of the town, a few drinks in a bar where everyone spoke Moroccan French, and then a party at the beach.

By the time they got home, at dawn, they had someone promise to drop by some bikes so they had their own wheels, they'd met the builders who had been working on the villa and agreed that Rider Senior was a dick in several languages, and Alo almost pulled. Mini accidentally fucked it up: she spilt a drink down the girl's top.

To be fair to Mini, she genuinely tripped, some tosser stuck his leg out at the wrong second and Alo had to grab her to stop her falling flat on her face. As she whirled round to breathe fire on the offending tripper, Alo turned back to boast his lightning reflexes when he saw the look of horror on the girl's face.

And also to be fair, he couldn't remember the girl's name. He had a feeling she didn't remember him either, as she hadn't asked for it, and would probably not want to remember it now.

And also to be fair to Mini, she did try to make it up to him. She played wingman for the rest of the night, charmed some guys at the bar to get them shots, danced with him when he struck out again, danced with him pretty close. Even gave him permission to stare at her tits all night. "This is a one-off-deal," she told him. "Tomorrow, you keep your eyes up."

She did give him a peck on the cheek when he still came home solo, moaning at her that it was all her fault. "She probably had chlamydia anyway, Ginger-minge. We'll find you another prozzie somewhere, don't worry."

He grabbed her and ruffled her hair, making her shriek. If the pool had been full, he'd have tossed her in that instead. Cheeky cow.


	10. Chapter 10

**I really loved this episode. I really did. We learnt where Mini's bitchy side came from, the apple didn't fall far from the tree. I mean that in a good way too, there's a lot of love in the McGuinness women. They just don't find it easy to show it. Who could blame them?**

**Alo, my little darling, don't worry. Remember the good times. They're wonderful to write. See below :-P**

**Now, sentimentality done, there will be a slight change of layout this week, in honour of Mini's episode. It was difficult writing this, not really because of what happened, but because of life being a bit stressy and too real to ignore. Not going to touch the whole father, assistant stuff too much, not here anyway. No beginning section this week, instead we're starting where we're going to end. But the last section harks back to what I've already written for Chapter 2, hopefully it should work out of context though. Enjoy :-)**

**By the way, I absolutely love how something has worked out. I'm psychic, peeps, I tell you. I didn't ever imagine condom costumes though lol.**

* * *

><p>How could pee on a stick make the world so much bigger, smaller, frightening and indifferent? Or a piece of paper with only a handful of words on it?<p>

Mini didn't get it. She didn't get it at all. And she didn't... she couldn't... she...

"I don't think you know how to love anything."

That she got. She couldn't help it. She understood. It was Alo. Of course she got why he was so tired. Why he was done. Why he was giving up. Never mind that everyone else had. Never mind _why_ everyone else had. She understood why he was giving up.

She had no words, no thoughts, no feelings. Not yet. She was just standing at the edge of the storm, unaffected yet. Even though the lightening had already struck.

A dramatic voice told her everything had gone to hell. Truth was, she wasn't in hell. This was purgatory. As she sat in the barn, mud all over her shoes, she stared out into the outside, where things looked beautiful in the grey light.

Purgatory was nowhere.

* * *

><p><em>Oh fuck... oh fuck... she felt so fucking good...<em>

It couldn't possibly be that sex was always this good. If it was this good with everyone, anyone, monogamy would not exist. It clearly existed because it could only be this good like this. Okay, maybe not like this in a bloody toilet cubicle, but with her... _Oh fuck, it really was good. It really, really fucking was..._

So he said it. It wasn't the kind of thing you should have to think about first. Which is why he smiled as he said it. How could he not smile? It was true, and it was amazing.

"Mini, I love you."

The look on her face changed a lot. He prayed to God, to anything that was merciful in the universe, that he wasn't deluding himself when he thought he saw the faintest, tiniest moment in her face when she didn't freak out, something that looked like awe. Even if he was right though, he'd fucked it up. It didn't matter what expression she pulled; he was still in her, for Christ's sake, he was definitely close enough to feel her freeze. 'Oh shit' indeed.

A tiny voice told him to be angry when she struggled away from him. Angry because she should have said it back, because it shouldn't have upset her. Instead all he cared about was that he had upset her.

It was Mini anyway. If she honestly wanted to tell him she loved him, she wouldn't tell him with words. In the world of Mini, words meant fuck all. In Alo's, words were far more honest and meaningful. Sex lay somewhere in-between.

She was quite content being there, somewhere in-between. "Jesus, Farm Boy, talk about ruining the mood!"

Okay, well... the mood was ruined, okay. So... fuck it, he needed to say it, he needed to be honest for once instead of shutting the fuck up. "Look, I think, I do though. I think I fucking love you."

She was pulling her clothes back on, anger venting out of her like steam. "You love fucking me, Alo, it's different," she countered, and then made for the door. No, fuck sake, this wasn't over, this wasn't fucking over.

Then Liv interrupted it all. Fuck sake.

She wasn't getting out of this so easily.

* * *

><p>"I was making that for Grace."<p>

It was the first thing she said after she kicked Eric out of her room, after she informed Alo of his sleeping arrangements. It was odd. She just clapped eyes on it again during the uncomfortable silence that followed, and felt like saying it. He looked at her utterly confused for a moment, realised what she was looking at, and wisely stayed silent. "When Liv and I went to see her at the hospital and they kicked us out, we brainstormed ideas of what to do for her to help her get better. Rich finished the song for her, Liv and I started a photo album for her to look at when she woke up."

Silence descended again. He reached out his arm for her, and without even thinking about it she sat next to him on the bed where he had gestured, rested her head against his shoulder, let him pull her gently towards him. Thankfully, he didn't say anything about it. He knew already that Mini didn't really want to talk about Grace, that that was something so stormy it wasn't even about self-preservation to let her do with it as she wanted right now. Besides, he had other things on his mind. Maybe now that Megabitch had left, it was better timing.

"Mini, I know you don't want to talk about..." he trailed off, gestured between the two of them, knowing that 'us' was one of Mini's forbidden words. She kept quiet, which meant she was listening. "This isn't just about loving the fucking. Maybe I'm wrong, and the L word doesn't really apply but..." He trailed off again, this time because he didn't know what to say. Or rather, he didn't know how to say what he wanted to say. There were a lot of things he wanted to say. "I'm not going anywhere, Mini. I'm here. I'm not interested in anyone else, and I know - _I know_ - that you're not either. So when it's just..." he gestured between them again. "Can we not head-fuck as much? Not when it's just us."

This time no gesturing. She peered up at him from his shoulder. She didn't really know what to say about that. Other than... "Okay."

He blinked at her, surprised at how easy that turned out to be. "Really?" She nodded. "Oh. Great! Agreed."

"Agreed." She suddenly started giggling. "Alo?"

"Hmmm?"

"Some normal fucking would be great right now."

He started chuckling, but it got smothered by her seizing his head and kissing him. This time he didn't stop her pushing him on to the bed. He even started running his hands up her thighs to start pulling her dress off. Oh God he lov -

There was a bloody knock at the bloody door. "Mini?"

They both froze. What the fuck?

"Your tea's getting cold."

She glared at the door so forcefully it was a marvel it didn't burst into flame. Alo was just very bewildered. This was meant to be seal-the-deal-sex of a very different type than the phrase usually suggests. Why was Eric ruining that for him? Not cool. Not cool at all.

"Alo, are you joining us for tea too?"

Flustered, Alo looked up at Mini, who was sat in his lap, dress bunched up around her hips, stock still exactly in a very good spot. This was a bit bizarre. Normally he looked at her for signs that no, that wasn't a good idea. Instead, her face openly waited for him to make up his own mind. "Uhh... yeah, sure," he stammered out, waiting for Mini to get cross. She didn't. "That'd be nice, thank you."

"Alright, I'll dish up another plate." There was a pause. "It's on the table." Another pause. Then, finally, they heard his footsteps on the stairs.

Mini's head fell onto Alo's shoulder again, exasperated, and groaned irritably. She felt him grin, rubbed her back soothingly. "Think we've got time for a quickie?"

He chuckled. "Oh, if only." He felt her grin too, and he kissed her skin. "Come on, before he walks in again."

Mini groaned again, but slowly stood up, pulled her dress back down and led the way, Alo following behind her.

If he'd know that that would be their last night happy together, he might have done things differently. They might have had that quickie, for instance.

If he could, he wouldn't change a thing though.

Eric made a mean bangers and mash. Even Mini had eaten it, after glaring at it as though it were dog food for a minute, and then she hadn't a bad word to say about it after. She'd even helped herself to Alo's seconds. Alo wasn't much of a sport fan, but it was interesting listening to Eric just ramble. His rambles were mostly on the beautiful game - rugby, to clarify - to comparing his experiences with the ones Nick had described. He seemed a good man, like a laid-back gentle giant. He'd probably make a good step-dad, even though Mini had spent the whole time looking a little sour and pseudo-bored. Shame. He seemed a nicer guy than her actual father. He certainly seemed a bit more caring. And present.

They ended up awkwardly chatting over the TV. That is, Alo and Eric did. Mini sat next to Alo, his arm round her shoulders, pretending to listen to the TV. But he could still feel her smothering down giggles when Eric said something funny. Shelly got back home, which meant Mini froze up, her temper flaring quickly. Thankfully he didn't have to witness that for long; Shelly soon disappeared with Eric. The TV could not have been turned up high enough.

Why is it that listening to grown-ups having sex is a major, major turn off?

So, for once, he actually did end up sleeping on the floor. They went up, and he made her giggle by teasing her about the mess he made when she pushed him off the bed earlier as they got the spare mattress out for him, grabbed spare bedlinen. He just buzzed, making as much noise as possible, just to distract her from the creaking bedsprings, making her happier. Then they brushed their teeth, she got changed into her little nightie-negligee-thingy, and they just carried on chatting. Not really about anything in particularly. Just stuff. Normal stuff. Stuff that happy people talk about.

She told him about the idea of the photo album she and Liv created. All of their favourite photos from the many, many adventures of the Bitches. Antics at school. Summer holidays. Nights out. And the group over the last year. Grace's dance recital. Pics from the Fashion Shoot, all of Grace and Franky's amazing creations. The after party, when Grace had finally got together with Rich, way back before the Justin Bieber haircut. Getting stoned at Liv's house. Drawing all over Alo's face at his surprise birthday party whilst stuffing his face with Rich's disastrous vol-au-vents. All of them geared up for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The not-wedding-reception, the boys all in their silly suits.

All very, very odd, even painful memories for all of them, except for Grace. After so long of conforming to the rules set by Mini the Megabitch, way back before college, Grace had become her own girl, had worked hard for the things she wanted, had believed in happy endings, and so deserved them when they came to pass. Silly girl almost got married after all.

"She looks happy."

Mini envied her. It was so monumentally stupid, considering how things had turned out, but she did. Grace had never had to deal with what lay in Mini's drawer. She turned over, feeling somber, peered down at Alo, tried to dig up something she wanted to say. But she still couldn't talk, not to anyone. Like she'd told Liv, _not without her_.

"Mini... I miss her too."

It stung, making her shut her eyes. He'd said what she wanted to say. But it didn't unlock anything, and she remained mute. So she turned off the light, and tried to sleep. But her grip on her covers didn't relax. She suddenly wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn't come. Everything was so locked away. Then she felt his hand fumble in the dark, looking for hers, and she slipped out of her bed to curl into his side, not able to see him but sense powerfully through the dark how close he was. His arm wrapped round her, found the knots in her back, gently started kneading them out, making her sigh with relief.

She wouldn't remember falling asleep. Alo would. He would remember thinking that all was right with the world.

Later, he would wonder whether he was just being naive, or whether things all changed from that point on to FUBAR. He would tell himself for a long time that it was the former, and he was an idiot to think that Mini could possibly have felt happy at that point.

Sadly, it was neither. The things that did change already had. They just didn't matter at that point.

But it was those changes that got him kicked out so unceremoniously in the morning. And he was naive to believe that it was just Mini being Megabitch again.

Who knows, things would probably have turned out very differently if Mini had shown Alo the contents of that drawer that morning. Who's to say he would have reacted any better than she did? They were kids. Kids aren't meant to deal with that just yet. Even grown ups fail to deal with that.

Mothers and fathers aren't born at conception.

* * *

><p>It could have been any time. They were such fucking idiots. Years of Sex Education had turned out to be a bit useless. They don't exactly tell you what to do when you're out of condoms and you're far too horny to be sensible. When you knew how fucking <em>amazeballs<em> it would be. How to find a way of not taking the morning-after pill too many times because you can't bear for the people at the pharmacy counter to start recognising you. What to do when forgetting became habit.

Mini could think a little about the stuff before it. The causes, so to speak. They were in the past. Alo was still in the present. But the future...

Yeah, not going there.

She shouldn't have chucked him out that morning. That was mean. It wasn't his fault she freaked out. Well, it was his fault, it was his sperm after all, but he didn't choose today of all days to consider telling him about the tests. But the thought of it... it scared her too much. She couldn't even process that fear into thought.

So she went from waking up feeling completely happy, playing with his hair as he slept serenely, to blindly angry, 'blindly' being the key word. She regretted it as she heard him finally give up trying to whisper sense into her through the door and stomp down the stairs to the front door. She considered going after him, apologising, telling him after all. But she didn't. She did send him a text though: _sorry Eric's slop last night hasn't sat very well, bad tummy making me feel grrr today, not pleasant sight_. It took her half an hour to debate whether to say more, or just send. Then it took another half an hour to decide whether or not to add an x.

She added two. He deserved it, she had been a bit brutal with his 'morning glory' after all. His text message back didn't take nearly as long as hers took: _that sucks :( want anything? Promise i'll turn the grr to :) x_

_thats ok. going to meet my dad again. will let you know when i'm free x_

And then she distracted herself from reality for the rest of the day.

* * *

><p>It was the music. It was a pretty sexy beat. By the time they found an empty room in the villa - after someone had yelled 'get a room!' - she was so turned on they could have started immediately. Instead Alo had the presence of mind to find the key in the lock so no one could disturb them or kick them out, and started stripping them of all their clothing, lifted her up and backed them on to the bed, and touched her everywhere, making her toes curl with every sensation. But his eyes never left her face, and when he was finally inside her, making everything feel so fucking good, he wouldn't let her look away. Wouldn't let her close her eyes even when she couldn't help herself. If anything, it just made her come faster, harder, and definitely longer, no matter how self-conscious he made her feel, watching her face change as her climax built and breached. It was even better than closing your eyes, focusing on your other four senses. Having her eyes wide open, unable to look away from her lover's face, she couldn't disassociate how he made her feel with him. She moaned his name over and over again as she came, watched as his face changed agonisingly, clutched the headboard so tight her knuckles turned white as the waves kept on pounding through her body as he lasted through it, and finally released when he did, his body shaking with the force of it.<p>

It took just over four different songs to change before either of them could move, but even then all it was was letting go of the headboard and wrapping them round him, to run her fingers through his hair, shifting his body slightly on top of hers, and un-tightening her legs around his arse.

"Fucking hell, Mins..."

She started giggling. She couldn't help it. Maybe because it had been so intense, and she just had no idea what to say. 'Fucking hell' summed it up quite nicely. He peered at her oddly for a moment, tried not to laugh too, and failed. He rolled off her, still giggling, happily wrapped his arm round her as she curled up into his side.

"Not bad, Farm Boy."

They looked at each other, and burst out laughing again. He reached down and kissed her, risking suffocation as his breathing still hadn't returned to normal. "Knew watching that much porn would come in handy..."

She pulled a face. "Ew, Alo. Just ew."

He chuckled. She was still smiling, she hadn't pulled away. He turned on to his side to face her, ran his hand through her long hair. "We're going to keep doing this when we get home."

She raised her eyebrows. "You so sure of that, Farm Boy?"

He was seriously actually. "You telling me you want to stop?"

She tried to look away from him then, but his hand was still in her hair, keeping her head fixed. All she could do was nod or shake her head, or use actual words.

Of course it was no. No, she didn't want to stop. But she wasn't... she didn't know what she didn't have to actually say it. So she said it another way.

She kissed him, didn't stop. She climbed on top to him, didn't stop. She made him moan again, didn't stop.

It all had to stop sometime though.


	11. Chapter 11

**Right, was written at a rush in the middle of the night, hoping nothing crap comes out. I thought this half was going to be harder. Instead it flowed out so easily.**

**Again, no random to kick us off, we're starting at the end again. There is no 'happily ever after' peeps, not until Skins says so. This time we stay in the present. No flying back to Morocco this time.**

**Never taken cocaine before by the way, so making it all up about what it feels like to be high on it. Hope it rings true enough.**

**I wonder what tomorrow's episode will bring :-)**

* * *

><p>She'd fucked up. She'd really, <em>really<em> fucked up. When did she make everything so fucking hard?

Her dad fucking off and abandoning her, that was normal, that was just what happened. She should have known that. But this... why hadn't she adapted to this, for this? Why hadn't she found a way to own it, to _love_ that Alo loved her? It was her own fucking advice, for fuck sake. Why hadn't she followed her own fucking advice? Some Minerva, some Goddess of Wisdom she'd turned out to be.

She could have tried harder for him. She could have tried at all. This daft, ginger, pill-taker, whacko band leader, farm boy was one of the best things to ever fall into her lap. Why was she only just now traipsing through the mud and shit for him? He was right. She was too late, and it didn't matter any more.

Her father had no excuse to be an unreliable sack of shit. Alo - who she'd always been able to rely on, no matter what, long before they even started sleeping together, even before they were friends - needed no excuse. He had reason.

Could it ever have gone another way? If she could, could she have done things differently, and kept him at her side?

* * *

><p><em>thats ok. going to meet my dad again. will let you know when i'm free xx<em>

He wasn't sure what to reply to that, so he didn't. He found that these days that tended to be a bit more advisable.

Except she didn't let him know when she was free. She seemed so lifeless at college, just staring constantly into space, completely unresponsive. All he could do was stare at the back of her head in class, wondering if she noticed and was ignoring him, or whether she just wasn't there at all.

He had a feeling it was more the latter, but that didn't improve matters much. Either way, she wasn't talking to him, and she was just blanking him every day. In between class she was either sitting in stone silence or hiding in the girls' loo. He'd noticed Franky staring at her in concern too, as though she were trying to solve a puzzle, and then eventually the crease in her forehead smoothed out, and her stares turned more... he didn't know. It was a bit weird actually. But it was Franky, so that was normal.

He wasn't really sure what he'd say if she was talking to him anyway. He was getting fed up with this. Why the fuck was this so difficult?

Which was why he was so, so relieved when Rich came back. So they did what best friends, brothers, men did when they were reunited.

They went to the pub for a pint.

"You still poking Yoko then?"

Alo had tried, unsuccessfully, to get Rich to talk about where he'd been for ages, but Rich really didn't want to talk about himself. Oddly, he did want to talk about that however. The look on Alo's face must have spoken a thousand words however, because Rich stopped being his usual sardonic self, and sat forward, actually concerned. "You haven't got her pregnant or something, have you?"

Alo glared at him, gave him the finger in response, making Rich smirk, mostly with relief. "Well, what then, Lennon?"

"I told her I love her the other night."

Rich winced. Oh dear. It was worse than he'd thought. "How did that go down?"

"Not well." Alo sighed. He was so tired. "She freaked out, told me I only loved the bonking. Since she's been her usual hot 'n' cold self. First she got my fingers stuck in a car door window as it was driving off, then she took her clothes off. She kicked me out of bed, then told her step-dad I'd be staying round. She got me to sleep on the floor, then she spooned all night. Last time I checked the thermostat was cold, she kicked me out of her room first thing in the morning the other day." He nodded his head slowly, knowing full well how ridiculous that sounded. "And that's just this week."

Rich blinked at him. "Fuck." He scoffed, shook his head. "Why do you put up with it? And if you say it's 'cos of her tits I'll strangle you."

Alo kept silent. He'd already said the reason out loud. He wasn't saying it a third time and not being believed again.

Thankfully, Rich caught up. Well, no, not thankfully, as it turned out. "Oh fuck off, no... you _meant it_, didn't you?" Rich stared at him in horror. Alo just stared at his pint. Now would be a good time to drown in it. "Fucking hell, Alo, you idiot..."

Maybe catching up wasn't such a good idea. "You know what, I'm not really up for this -"

"Sit down, mate." Rich grabbed his arm, kept him from standing up. Alo deliberated over it for a second, and then settled his arse back down. "I'm sorry." Rich sighed. "Does she... does she feel the same way?"

Alo's stomach sank. "I have no idea."

When he looked up at his best friend, he saw the last thing he wanted to see.

Pity.

* * *

><p>Was it really such a stretch to understand why she was pissed off that they were there at her father's launch? This was the world of grown ups, where they had jobs and bitches for bosses, and they all sat around looking cool and drinking cocktails made of very suspect-tasting spirits. She was there playing the role of the glamorous teenage daughter, to be shown off and impress everyone. They were just fucking about. Which meant they could fuck off and do this another time.<p>

She had no idea that Ryan then made a complete arse of himself. Even she would have thought he was lame if she'd seen the whole nonsense with the business card and 'meeting some of Mini's friends'. Tosser. She had no idea that it had only served to upset Alo even more. She barely had an idea about anything really. If she had, she would have realised she was surrounded by absolute twats. That they were all there to launch a product that was shit. That they were all bores and drug heads, some bores because they were drug heads, and the rest drug heads because they were bores. She would have dragged her mates out and gone somewhere else to have fun.

She would have stuck her head out of her arse and realised that Alo was at his limits. And that she had dragged him there herself.

* * *

><p>"No offense, but forget that one, man. Not a chance in hell."<p>

It really was hopeless, wasn't it? Even Liv, Mini's best friend forever, advised him to give up on her. You knew it was bad when her own best friend couldn't recommend her.

_I have no idea..._

He didn't know whether he was seeing clearly right now, or everything was clouded over. This was before he even snorted the coke. He had no idea where the fuck he was or why he was there or where the fuck they were going. He was sick of it, he was fucking sick of feeling like this. Why was he pathetically worrying about Mini when she clearly didn't give a fuck about him? Who the fuck was that Ryan douche to her? It was so bad Liv finally figured it out, figured out how lame it was, and told him so bluntly to move on.

Before he knew that Mini would switch off Megabitch eventually, that he'd get his proper Mini back, and all would be right in his world again. Right then, he didn't know that. Whatever was bothering her would continue bothering her, and whatever it was that spurred her to be a bitch to him in the first place would remain the same.

A tiny voice deep inside his mind knew that she did love him too. That that was why she hadn't chucked him out of her life completely once she'd scratched her itch, or whatever originally inspired her to de-flower him in the first place. That that was why she called him when she needed someone to save her. That that was why she spooned with him, and laughed with him. That she was, when she forgot to be unhappy with life, happy with him.

It used to be a louder voice. It had been losing volume lately, until it was almost mute.

He wasn't really loving himself right now either. He was the pathetic idiot who got pulled along for this ride.

Nick and Franky popped out of the mass of coats, displayed their findings, and Liv forgot all about her discovery, deeming it unimportant considering their other love of their lives; narcotics.

Time to get off the ride, or change the direction it was going in.

The coke was good stuff. He knew it almost instantly. Finally, he was seeing clearly.

Mini was his. She didn't belong to this Ryan tosser, or her dad who'd so easily stepped back into her life. She belonged with him. Of course she fucking did. He needed to find her and save her from those arseholes who were making her so hollow lately.

He caught sight of Ryan, barged straight through the crowd for him, shoved himself wide-eyed into his face. "I need to talk to you."

The guy looked a bit taken-aback, the tall ginger kid suddenly so in his face, smudge of white on his nose. "Oh hey, you're Mini's friend, right?"

On the borders of his awareness he heard Mini deny she knew him, heard her father try to get him out of the way. By the coke was working wonders, and he wasn't getting distracted. "I don't know what she said, alright, but she's not available. Do you understand?" He didn't even really say it to him, this knob in front of him. Mostly, he said it to her. _Fuck sake, Mini, I love you, get with the fucking program and just love me back!_

But no, nothing. Instead she stepped in between them, her face bricked up. "I swear to God, if you don't shut up now..."

What? Honestly, what? What possible harm could she do to him now? She'd already toyed with his feelings, belittled him, played him for a fool. What possible threat could she have now?

Whatever it was, she got interrupted. "Look, I'm a bit lost, mate. What exactly is your problem?"

Really? Did this prick really need it spelt out to him? "Do you know what you look like? Fucking sleazing all over her?" Finally, he seemed to get it, and his face turned sour. "You're a dick, mate. She doesn't want you!" _She wants me!_

"Alo, fuck off, please!"

He stared at her for a moment. Megabitch was there. _Please just be Mini, please just stop acting like a bitch..._

"I suggest you leave now, do you understand?" her dad said, his voice far too calm. He wasn't any better than Ryan. "You're upsetting my daughter."

_Your daughter? Since when the fuck was she _your_ daughter? A few days ago you weren't worth mentioning and so might as well as not fucking existed. And what the fuck do you know about upsetting her?_

"She's been weird ever since you turned up," he pointed out, still fighting.

"Stop it! Just leave us alone!" Megabitch-Mini pleaded with him. She could have actually stopped him. All she needed to do was sound like she cared about what was going to happen to him. Not every other fucker in the room.

"Did you set her up with this dickhead?" Alo questioned, the ball still rolling, pointing at the dickhead in question. "She's my girlfriend, you lot just fuck with her heads!"

Dickhead launched himself at him, but all it did was turn the coke in his veins red, and want to fight back as Mini screamed at him "what are you talking about?"

The truth. He was talking about the truth. Sadly.

He got pulled off Dickhead, and Mini's father turned to him after a stern word from some snobby bitch. "That's enough now, it's time to leave." And pushed him into the hands of the bouncers.

"Mini, Mini! Tell him to stop! Mini!" Alo pleaded with her. _Fuck sake, please don't let me down now..._

Then she said the worst thing she'd ever said to him. The worst thing she would ever say to him.

* * *

><p>"I don't want you here! I never wanted you at all, do you understand? Now get the fuck out, you deluded loser!"<p>

Even as the words vomited out of her mouth she knew she was going too far. She couldn't even muster the feeling in it, they hurt her too before she'd even finished. What the fuck was she doing? What the _fuck_ was she doing?

What the fuck had she just done?

Alo had just done what every girl who'd ever gotten involved with a boy hoped he'd do: stand up for her, show her he cared enough to fight for her, and fought off the cancers in her life. So why the fuck had she gotten angry with him? She wasn't angry...

She didn't even snog Ryan out of anger. That was... that was...

That was just stupid. Desperate. Scared...

When she pulled Ryan into that office, scattered paper work everywhere, it was to feel anything but the storm that was about to explode in her. Instead, she felt nothing at all.

It all felt wrong. Ryan was too short. His suit was too smooth. His designer stubble was too scratchy.

His hair wasn't soft like Alo's, his clothes weren't familiar like Alo's. He didn't kiss like Alo did, didn't touch her like Alo did, didn't even sound like Alo did. But she'd just chucked Alo out...

Fuck, fuck, _fuck..._

Thankfully she didn't have the endure Ryan's touch for long. He seemed to realise that this was all a very big mistake quite quickly. She was grateful for that. As he made his way out, she got off the desk, kicked her shoes off, and slowly collapsed to the floor, surrounded by coats and belongings, and hugged her knees, waiting. Soon the emotion would breach, wouldn't it? And then she'd know what she was actually feeling.

Except then Liv sat down with her, looking like she knew what was happening, and sadly it just became more and more apparent that she didn't. It delayed it, all the feelings Mini had been waiting to feel, put them on ice for a moment. "Interesting evening," Liv said pointedly.

"Don't start." _If you're going to lecture me about leading Alo on so he said... what he just said... then leave me alone._

Instead Liv kept quiet, started shuffling a deck of cards, something to fill the silence, something to focus the rest of their crap on. She dealt a card to Mini, making her smile a little, even thanked her. And then she started on another topic instead.

"You're putting way too much into it, you know. With your dad, I mean."

She had a point. Gregory had let her down before. He'd already upset her by not telling her about Sydney. But he'd fixed that, she was going with him. "Well, it'll be different this time."

"Why?" Liv asked, doubting. "Why do you suddenly need him?"

_Because I have far too many pregnancy tests giving me horrendous news, and I don't know what to do._ "You tell me." _Please do. Because I _can't _tell you._

"No, Mini! You need to start telling me!" Liv said. She sounded like the Liv she knew and loved before their lives got turned upside down. The Liv who was less angry, and genuinely cared more.

Mini lowered her head. She really did want to tell her. But it was hard. It was really, really hard... not this. Liv lifted her hair out of the way, and she was going to say it...

But then Franky was there, and it got harder again. They both closed up again. Three was a crowd.

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?" Franky asked, sounding like she was genuinely sorry. If they'd said yes, she'd probably have left them alone again and understood.

But Liv had closed up too. "I don't know, Franky. I don't fucking know anymore."

That was the first retreating back.

"You still haven't told her." It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact. Ever observant, old Franks. "Who have you told, Mini?" Mini just breathed. "Have you told anyone?"

Then, finally, Mini admitted the truth. The horrible, frightening, lonely truth. "I haven't told myself."

Franky let that wash over both of them in all its sadness. But she stayed. Bless her, she stayed.

_I'm pregnant, dad. And I don't know what to do about it. I need someone to help me._ Things get a little easier to say, a little easier to face, once you admit them to yourself to the point where finally, _finally_, you believe them.

* * *

><p>It didn't surprise her. None of it surprised her. In fact, what had happened before she stepped into her father's home was more surprising than what she found there. Her mum said things she'd said before, usually in a drunken stupor, but this time her breath was clear, she was sober, and she meant it. <em>I'm not having it. I am not fucking having it! I don't want you to go... At that first scan, when I saw your little heartbeat on the screen, I loved you. More than anything else. That hasn't changed. Why don't you believe me?<em>

She should have believed her. McGuinness women were mental when it came to each other, but they did love each other. They just couldn't stand each other most of the time. It was like looking into a mirror. You didn't always know who was looking at who.

The house was empty. It looked like no one had ever been there at all, it was just waiting for its new residents, stale and characterless. The letter on the kitchen counter might as well have been a 'welcome' note from a landlord in a holiday home, there was no other sign of Gregory. Maybe that would have been preferable, not having that letter. But then she wouldn't have had the catharsis of tearing it, along with the cheque, up.

As far as gestures were concerned, it would have been better if she'd gone to Creevey farm first. Collapsed on the floor of an abandoned house, it finally dawned on her that she was in the wrong house. Her father had never made an effort for her. She'd called him. She'd gone round to his work, to his house. He hadn't even known who she was on the phone.

Whilst last night Alo got into a fight trying to show how important she was to him.

That exact sentence went through her head and silenced every other thought. It then repeated itself again and again until finally there was no way for her to deny it, or underestimate it, or make fun of it. Last night Alo had tried to prove he loved her, he'd made an effort for her.

She didn't even change her shoes as she sprinted out the empty house that she would never return to again.

* * *

><p>The comedown was fucking horrible. Alo was perfectly familiar with them; normally he planned for them, around them. But usually he knew the symptoms, knew they were chemically caused. This time, he just had one track on repeat in his head.<p>

_I don't want you here! I never wanted you at all, do you understand? Now get the fuck out, you deluded loser!..._

_I don't want you here! I never wanted you at all, do you understand? Now get the fuck out, you deluded loser!..._

_I don't want you here! I never wanted you at all, do you understand? Now get the fuck out, you deluded loser!..._

That's all he could hear. Over and over. And her face, the way it changed as she said it. _I can't believe you said that to me._

After he'd been chucked out of the Catacombs, the coke still buzzing in his head, he'd tried to beat the shit out of a traffic cone. When it finally started to wear off, when the anger dissipated, leaving him with just that horrible more-ish feeling, he'd walked to where he parked the van and called Rich. After telling him everything that had just happened, after telling him how fucking angry he was, Rich implored him to just stay in the van, to not drive, to not go back. He didn't stay in the van, but he did keep his phone on him, and he just wandered around the docks area, avoiding the end where the club was, still fuming. Rich finally found him, drove him home whilst letting Alo rant some more.

Rich had seen Alo get torn up a bit by girls before, that was the hazard of growing up as optimistically as he had. But this was something else. Rich had never seen Alo angry because of a girl like this before.

He really did love her.

Alo didn't sleep a wink. Rich finally succumbed just before dawn, after hours of saying very little. He didn't have words of comfort. Dewi then gave him a lift home, leaving Alo to clear his head on his own. It didn't work. In fact, the dark clouds over his head managed to scare even his mother, who avoided him after he glared at her so ferociously when she tried to hand him a list of chores.

Given who did show up, he'd rather have done chores.

"Farm Boy, come down, I want to talk."

He didn't.

He pulled his legs up, hoping she'd get the message. She didn't, or maybe she didn't care, or... or something. She climbed the ladder, sat nearby. He didn't turn to face her, couldn't look at her.

"Are you going to keep giving me the silent treatment?" She said it so easily, as though this could be fixed with her own odd blend of niceness. "I've just waded through a sea of shit for you!"

_No, I waded through that to get away from you._ "Great, thanks." He didn't really have anything else to say to that. "I'd just... you know, I'd quite like for you to not be here right now."

"I'm telling you I'm sorry," she said quietly. He didn't think he'd ever heard her actually say sorry.

"And I'm telling you it doesn't matter." Maybe she really was sorry. But it didn't matter. It might have mattered if she'd said that right there and then, at the club last night, if she'd gone after him when he marched out. It wasn't even a might, he would have. He would have forgiven her if she followed that feeling that changed her face as she called him a loser, that feeling that made her look like she was regretting her words even as she said them. He knew her better than that. Even Mini the Megabitch had her limits. Last night she breached them, and they both knew it at exactly the same time. He would have forgiven her if she'd followed him right there and then, if she'd just left those pricks and picked Alo instead.

But she didn't.

"I thought it was working... we... we agreed..."

_How in the world did you think this was working? _"I'm done, Mins. It's too much." He sensed, rather than saw, her lift her head to listen. Because these words were going to count. "It's too fucking exhausting loving you."

"But Alo, I..." _I love you too_.

He finally turned to look at her, studied her face, and knew what she was trying to say. _Please... _"Say it." _Please, just say it, and mean it, and fix this. Just love me too. Please..._

But she didn't. And he couldn't figure out from her face why she didn't. Only that she wasn't going to. Maybe never would.

"I don't think you know how to love anything."

It didn't matter how she felt. Or what she said, even. Maybe those sentences that she never finished did mean that she loved him too. What did that matter if she never made him feel like she did?

He looked away from her, even looked in completely the opposite direction, and waited for her to leave. Eventually she stopped fidgeting, stood, and slowly descended back down. He heard her put her heels back on, take unsteady steps out of the barn, sludge through the mud, and disappear entirely.

Then, and only then, did he let himself sob with heartbreak.

* * *

><p>She was waiting in a room with people who were supposed to be there. Grown ups who'd done the mature thing and had families. She was the impostor. She was still a kid. She might as well have been the toddler who was babbling about. But she was pregnant, and she was alone, save Franky. She was glad she was there actually, glad she had this slightly off kilter girl who did not judge.<p>

She should have been there with Alo. But not now. Maybe ten years from now, when they'd grown up and stopped doing what they were supposed to do as teenagers: fuck up. They would be there because they wanted to be there, because they were hoping for a new life together, when they had a home to offer and were parents who swore never to fuck up again, if only for their family. Not having this life forced upon them when they weren't ready for it.

But there was no 'they' anymore. She was a teenager, and she'd fucked up.

The gel was cold, felt absolutely minging. The machine made some very odd noises, and she couldn't look at the screen. She had her limits.

"There it is. Look."

"No, thank you," she said, her voice brittle.

"Do you want to know what it is?" _Enough with the questions, I don't want to know!_

"I know what it is, it's a fucking baby!" _Just shut up and leave me alone!_

"Yes it is. Look! It's your baby." She really wouldn't leave it, would she? Stupid bint.

So she turned her head to the screen. Saw things she didn't recognise as anything.

And then... there it was. This curled up little life, so vulnerable inside her. Her baby. Her tiny little baby.

_At that first scan, when I saw your little heartbeat on the screen, I loved you. More than anything else. _Mini remembered what her own mother had told her, felt exactly the same and more. _I'm going to take such good care of you. I'm going to look after you, and watch you grow. I will never leave you. I will never abandon you. I will never fuck it all up again._

_I promise._


	12. Chapter 12

**Yo :-S Sorry this is so late everyone, and short. This episode didn't provide a lot of inspiration sadly. This week's however... oh I'm so happy. And sad. And Alo... you're an absolute idiot. Ew. Just ew. To be fair to him however... we're a fucked up generation. We all know stupid people who were already shagging their brains out long before they should have. At least Alo freaked out about it, as he should have done.**

**Someone gave me a very honest review about Chapter 10. I believe the word used was 'iffy'. They're right. I've read it over again, and I'm not happy with it. So hopefully, if I have time, I will be going back and re-writing it. Sadly, as it's already posted, I don't think anyone will get an alert for the changes, so will let you know here when I get that done. But I'm not happy with it, whereas I was really happy with Chapter 11. That took me one whole night, I got to sleep at 5am, and I didn't even notice until I'd finished. I want Chapter 10 to feel like that for me too.**

**Anyway, about this chapter: inspiration is mostly from the Lock-In, but mostly just immediately follows on from Mini's episode, trying to get them into the right place for Alo's episode. I don't have room to develop anything, but I have room to flesh things out, so been doing that and trying not to breach canon. Hence why it was difficult to write for, and why I have little to offer. But work begins now for Alo's episode, and that is certain to provide more material.**

**Anyhoo, enough ranting: enjoy :-)**

* * *

><p><em>23:55 I lied. Im drunk and its horrible and no girl wants to talk to me and I want u to do that thing u do right now but u hate me cos im shit and ur amazing and I dunno how I fucked this up but I did and now im fucked up forever because all I want is u<em>

She was awake. Of course she was fucking awake. He was meant to be out taking part in the Whore Wars with Liv and Alex, of course she was awake. Any moment now something would appear on Facebook or Twitter celebrating his conquests. Instead he randomly texted her the most empty text conversation they'd ever had.

_23:40 alright_

_23:42 what dyo u want farmboy? Arent u supposed to be out having liv throw fannies at u_

_23:43 I am and its great and I love it so there_

_23:44 good_

_23:45 good. Good night then_

She'd paced her bloody room after that. She'd just read it all back and paced her room. Because really, what the fuck?

She felt like she was being torn apart by horses. Except, that was probably a much swifter way to die, they didn't actually slowly pull their limbs off, did they? Horses were tougher than that, right?

Ew, why the fuck did she think that? Fucking demented, sick thought.

That's how bad the pacing was. Her thoughts were flying all over the place. Anything to take her mind off imagining what he could be doing. Even if it involved horses.

And then, ten minutes later, he sent that. The above. And she'd stared at it for five seconds. And then her fingers flew over the keys of her phone. _I don't hate you, you're not shit; you're awesome, I'm a bitch and I was a bitch to you, and I'm fucked as well because all I want is you too and... I'm coming over, don't move, we're going to fix this, everything's going to be fine..._

And then he sent this: _soz that last bit was meant to read *2 be in u_

Alo, you stupid, _stupid_ idiot.

She stopped pacing. Just stared at those retarded words that he'd added. Her face slowly twisted with tears, and she slapped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from making too much noise. Her mum had been quite clingy since she'd come back home. She'd ask too many questions about why she was crying, and Mini knew - just knew - that she wouldn't be able to bottle it in in this state. She'd let everything spill out, and then everyone would know, and...

And she just couldn't do that. As grateful as she was that she had Franky's support, it didn't make the weight any lighter. Sometimes it just made it heavier. So she was keeping quiet for the time being.

So she started swallowing down her sobs, furiously wiping her face of her tears, and tried to just be angry that Alo had been such a twat. It didn't work half as well as it used to, but it stopped her crying.

She missed him. She sodding missed him so fucking much. Particularly now, late at night, when she didn't have his heartbeat to listen to to put her to sleep, or the way he muttered nonsensical things in his sleep sometimes and randomly hugged her during the night. It wasn't even the physical stuff she missed sometimes. She remembered the last night he stayed over, listening to him chuckle on the floor as he looked over Grace's photo album. She just missed that laugh, the way he delighted in little funny things.

She missed the sound of her own laugh. He was the only way who made her laugh these days. She didn't even know how he did it sometimes, he just did.

Was it unfair, to miss that feeling most of all?

* * *

><p><em>Filthy lady took my heart<br>Ate it up and did a fart  
>Asked me what I had for afters<br>Hung my feelings from the rafters_

_Filthy Lady, tried to tame you  
>You fucked off, who can blame you<br>I can actually and i will  
>You're rubbish and your face? it smells<em>

_Oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why  
><em>_Oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why  
>Don't I feel like dancing<br>Oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why  
>Oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why<br>Don't you care you knob_

He wrote it after she'd left, after a bottle of cheap whiskey, a joint that didn't feel strong enough, and a drunken angry march over the fields, trying to get away from her footprints in the mud. The prints leading to the barn had deep heal marks from her silly shoes. The prints leading away were her own feet. Her big, stupid, head-fucker feet. Not only that, but there were the wheel tracks from her daft suitcase. There was no getting away from the evidence that she really had waded through a sea of shit for him.

And he'd as good as told her to fuck off.

A decision that was starting to weigh heavy. Alo was kind of hoping the whiskey would weigh heavier, so he could just focus on being drunk.

Naturally, it didn't quite work like that. Instead he just felt hungover already. A sick feeling told him... he wasn't sure. But he wasn't entirely sure he'd made the right choice.

Could they have worked things out? Would she have listened if he'd told her that he wasn't happy, and that they needed to change things? What would he say?

Stupid, stupid questions. Far too many of them. Where were answers when you needed them?

Lucidity suddenly returned, and he realised he was just staring at her footprints still. She really did walk all this way to see him, to talk to him. Had she come to say that she was going to try now? That she was going to stop being Megabitch?

Had he being so cold stopped her from telling him that she really did want him, that she wanted things to carry on 'working'? Had he just fucked up, really _really_ fucked up again?

He swore out loud, and walked home. It was too late to follow her trail now. The best he could do now was sleep off the whiskey that was now pounding in his head, and wave the white flag in the morning.

They had to salvage something. Anything. It didn't matter that she didn't know how to love him back. Didn't change the fact that he loved her. He had to salvage something.

He just didn't know how yet.

* * *

><p>Her mum knew. Mini was certain of it, but Shelly wasn't saying anything, and Eric kept talking about something not being talked about. But she had to know. She was holding her daughter's hair back every morning, all the booze had vanished from her hide-holes, and Eric was cooking decidedly healthy food. But not diet food. It definitely wasn't like the Dukan diet Shelly had made them try a while back.<p>

At this rate Mini could start to show just because she was finally eating proper meals that didn't micro-measure every single calorie.

She felt different now. Restless. She was pregnant - actually pregnant, she'd seen the ultrasound, even had a copy of it in her purse now - and... and she had no idea what the next step was.

After Eric helped her and her luggage back into the house after Greggory let her down, her mum just hugged her for a very long time. Neither mother nor daughter said anything; the whole gushing maternal love speak not being a particularly familiar language to either or them. Mini surprised herself; she held her mum tight too, was even close to tears. She never thought she'd be glad to come back home.

Since, things had been better. Shelly took her out shopping one day, had lunch, had a laugh even. Her mum joked at first about the fact that she'd gone up a size, and that she craved some rather odd dishes, and ate a lot, but then she frowned, looked at her daughter more carefully. And after that they started to talk a little more openly. Shelly told her a bit about what Eric was like, and how their relationship was like. Mini found herself telling her mum who Alo was, and why he stayed round so often. She didn't tell the whole truth; that would have been difficult, given that she didn't know the whole truth herself. But she admitted that they'd been sleeping together since Morocco, were even 'together, sort of' for a bit, and that - and this was the honest part - she'd driven him away.

Her mum, bless her, naturally told her that was rubbish. "Ah, he's a bloke, luv, he just got scared of how amazing you are. Screw him," she said. Mini defended him, something she didn't think she'd ever do, and told her mum that it was her fault, that she should have tried harder to keep hold of him. "Making things work is an effort for two. He should have waited for you longer, until you were ready."

Well, there was some wisdom to that. Odd then that the first sentence didn't jive with the second. Alo should have waited just a little bit longer, and then his patience would have been rewarded. But he had tried, he'd made the effort, just by putting up with her being Megabitch so often and adoring her all the same. She should have tried too, tried putting aside every knotted insecurity in the core of herself that told her that this wasn't what she wanted.

She'd been so daft. Why did it all have to make sense now, when it was all over?

* * *

><p>"Alo, I swear to God, if you've been wanking in this bed I will cut off your penis and feed it to the goats next door."<p>

He peered at her, confused. "But I thought goats were vegetarian..."

Mini raised an eyebrow. "What?"

He blinked at her. Realised what he'd said. And that he was awake. In Morocco. On holiday. Not dreaming.

At least, he really hoped he wasn't dreaming; Mini was in a bikini again.

Then she slapped him. Not so lightly either. Yep, definitely awake.

"Ow! What the fuck was that for?" He complained, his hand over his stinging cheek.

"The night's over, Farm Boy. So eyes off my tits."

"Oh." Fair enough. "What time is it?"

Mini shrugged. "Lunch time. I'm hungry, let's go."

"Right... okay." Alo murmured, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Then... "Wait, what?"

An hour later they were in Marrakech. "Where's everyone else?" Alo asked her, finally able to breathe. She'd been squeezing his ribs a bit too hard as he rode the bike. Apart from that, he'd loved it, having the wind in his hair, everything moving that fast right by him without being encased with metal like in his beloved van back home. He even kind of liked how tight she held on, squealing with terror. He was going to have to teach her how to ride one of these, otherwise she'd strangle him to death on the way back.

"Hungover. Nick tried to go for a run when he woke up, keeled over in the heat. He asked for some Lucozade." Mini informed him, pushing her sunglasses back up her nose.

He looked her over, disappointed. She wasn't wearing her bikini anymore.

Navigating the customs of other cultures, particularly unfamiliar ones, was a tricky one. They knew Morocco wasn't exactly Bristol, where they could wander round in shorts so short they were basically just knickers. So, she'd forced him to put on some full length jeans and a t-shirt rather than his usual shorts and vest tops, and she was now sporting a look that she'd probably borrowed from the movies: flared khaki-coloured, cotton trousers, and a shirt buttoned up modestly (but not too conservatively), and she'd found a shawl to act as a make-shirt burkha.

She actually looked quite nice. But she didn't remotely look like herself. She didn't even have ribbons in her long hair. The great big sunglasses were very 'Mini' though.

"Okay. What about Liv and Rider?"

They'd parked somewhere near the famous Jamaa el Fna, seemingly spelt several different ways, and were on a mission: to find those chips Mini had wanted last night but never found. In the enormous market square, there was bound to be chips. And they were going to find them. Even if they had to search the whole square. And it was a really big square.

Alo heard his own question echo itself in his head, and screwed his face up as he turned to Mini. "They didn't... again?"

Mini snorted in amusement. "No, of fucking course not, Liv's not that idiotic. Well, no, she is, she already has shagged him, but she's smart enough not to again. Rider's still AWOL, guess he's with that bird he pulled last night. Or in a ditch, who knows?"

"Rider pulled?" Alo felt gutted. How the hell did that sleaze ball pull and he didn't?

"Yes, the beer glasses must have been really thick last night."

He frowned at her, confused. "Eh?"

She giggled. "She was a bit of a minger, did you not see her?"

No, not really. He'd been busy dancing with her all night. She giggled again when he shrugged, assumed he meant he didn't remember anything, thanks to the bless'd booze. Nah, he just hadn't been paying attention. She had after all given him free rein to stare at her tits all night, that wasn't an offer he was going to waste. "Did anyone else pull?"

She shrugged. "Some French guy asked for my number, but he also asked for Nick's, so maybe not. Liv may or may not have pulled... bollocks, what's his name? The taxi driver... can't remember, oh well. Anyway, they were quite friendly, but apparently nothing happened. He has offered to take us to the beach tomorrow though, and Liv does look epic in a bikini."

She made a heavy gesture at her tits, pulled a face that made him laugh, and then thread her arm through his and he lead the way into the market.

Incredibly, by the time the sun had set, and everyone was bowing down for evening prayers, they were munching on a bag of chips. They tasted different, definitely a lot spicier, but they were nonetheless sticks of deep fried potato. It took a while, after being pounced on by many carpet and jewellery sellers, as well as someone who tried to sell them shisha tobacco ("and something _stronger_, huh?"), but there they were, uncertain of whether to bow down too, or whether to steal shit, or whatevers. To Alo's delight, they hadn't found Marmite. _Yet_, Mini countered.

After getting some supplies - Lucozade, Cadburys, Doritoes, and Smirnoff - they made their way back to the bike. Where Alo refused to drive. "My ribs are still sore, Mins!"

"You shouldn't have gone so fucking fast then!"

"If I hadn't, we'd still be stuck behind the herd of goats!"

"I don't know how to ride it!"

"Then I'll teach you!"

The locals just stared and shook their heads. Must be on their honeymoon, they said.

She screamed and shrieked at first, stalled the bike and slammed her hands over her eyes whilst he caught them from falling over. But then he stopped being irritated with her, started grinning, pulled her hands from her face, and steered the bike with her until she was whooping too. He tucked her hair over one shoulder so it didn't blow back in his face all the time and enjoyed her body heat as the evening got colder, and the feel of her waist with his arm round her, ignoring the ache in his other that was holding the booze and familiar brand names.

And they both thought to themselves, it had been a really good day.


	13. Chapter 13

**Back on better form! :-D**

**Originally this entire chapter was going to be written from over Mini's point of view, but I arrived at the half-way point I'd already pre-determined quicker than I expected. Then I tried a Morocco scene. Didn't work. So I pasted in what was the beginning of the next chapter, marking the beginning of a switch. Much happier now actually :-)**

**So here we go: double helping. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>She didn't feel so good.<p>

It was late, and she still felt queasy. She shouldn't really have been there, at the rave. She didn't feel comfortable dancing around anymore, the movement just made her feel more nauseous; she'd had to turn up late to avoid the pre-drinking and pre-pill popping; she felt sleep deprived because of the unsettling feelings in her entire body...

Being pregnant sucked. How the fuck did the human race last this long?

On the edge of her awareness, outside of her aching body and its second heartbeat, she heard her name being called. Alo...

She raised her head, saw him in his Peter Pan get-up, complete with wooden sword and green face paint, and just... it didn't help. She still felt sick, and she still didn't want to move off the top of the car. No, she _really_ did want to move, but her stomach didn't, wouldn't let her.

When it passed for a bit, she'd go find him. She'd only really come because of him anyway, when she really let herself admit it. Franky was swept up with Nick right now, and she was a little too 'go for McGuinness-Creevey!' for Mini's comfort, and Liv and Alex were still at it with the Whore Wars. And Rich was Rich. Undoubtedly he'd been telling Alo that he could do better.

In her present state of mind, in fact just her present state, she wasn't so sure that Rich was wrong about that. Alo probably could do better than her. He was nice. She wasn't.

Her stomach finally stopped squirming for a bit, and she shakily stood and weaved through the crowd. There were a few other Peter Pans around, but none of them were the redhead she was looking for. She found Rich, smoking mellowly on a sofa made out of stuffed toys. There was a quite cute penguin just past his shoulder, made for an interesting pairing. "Hey, Hardbeck, where'd Peter Pan fly off to?"

He exhaled, stared at her the way he did, his eyes a little too steely for comfort. As uncomfortable as it made her, Rich wasn't as observant at Franky. He saw nothing but trouble. But then he suddenly smirked knowingly, even a little cruelly, and pointed out the way. "Don't forget to think happy thoughts, Wendy," he said, and then went back to getting high.

That didn't really mean anything to Mini at first, until...

"Ah, very mature, Farm Boy."

She didn't really know how to feel, looking at him with his stupid, _caught_ look on his face, and this silly little creature at his side sucking his finger. She kind of wanted to laugh, it was all so ridiculous. There he was, looking guilty for hitting on some other girl, and there she was, feeling jealous.

Then the wrong light bulb switched on in his head. "Oh, err... Mini McGuiness, this is..." he introduced, and then trailed off. Classy, Alo, not knowing this skank's name.

Once again, the wrong light bulb lit up. "Poppy Champion!" The little creature said. Mini honestly couldn't have given a flying rat's arse what her name was, but now she'd given it... seriously? Who the fuck was called 'Champion'? How fucking lame.

"Poppy Champion," Alo repeated. Yes, Alo, she got that the first time, thank you. Now she understood Rich's smirk.

An uncomfortable silence descended, and, knowing that the ball was now in her court, Mini made a decision. Fuck this... "Well, err... enjoy your beer and bants, then..." _Please don't stay with this girl. She's all wrong, she's tiny and barely reaches your hip, at least you never had to crane your neck to snog me... just pick me, Alo. Follow me._

And she walked away, unable to say any of it. If she turned back, would she have met his eye as she walked away, watching her go? How would he describe who she was to the weirdo-pixie-fairy-tramp? Was she his 'ex'? 'Just a friend'?

Or just 'nobody'?

She went home shortly after that.

* * *

><p>As much as she loved Franky for trying, it didn't help. It never would have helped. Rich spotted her as he left Franky and Alo to it, sided up to her to watch from the common room doorway, and eavesdropped on their conversation as well.<p>

"I know about you and Mini."

"Yeah, and?"

Mini's innards sank. She'd ever heard him sound so indifferent. Rich turned to smirk at her, but when he saw the look on her face, and the way she gripped the door-frame, the smirk never made it to his face. So he carried on listening too.

"_And_?" Franky repeated incredulously. Then she slapped his forehead a few of times to properly get his attention. "Look, Mini likes to think she's a complicated girl, Alo, but she's not. When she says no she really means yes."

Mini screwed her nose up at that last comment. That did sound a bit weird. "That sounds a bit wrong," he pointed out as well.

"Focus, Alo," Franky said, getting annoyed with him. "Mini _needs _you."

"She doesn't even like me," he countered at her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Mini saw Rich look at her, as if seeking confirmation. That's not true, she thought. But what kind of idiot inflates someone's ego by saying they're awesome? Surely he wasn't idiotic to believe she honestly didn't like him? Mini, just like every other human being on the planet, showed they liked someone by being happy around them, by enjoying their company. She might have been a bitch on occasion, maybe even lots of occasions, but she'd always smiled, she'd always laughed when they started being friends, and even more so since they all went to Morocco. Surely that said that she did like him?

"Doesn't matter." Franky countered back. "You have to get her back." She then grabbed his arm, tugged him to get him to really pay attention. "Don't you get it? You two are like the only good thing to happen this entire crappy year. So stop fucking it, Alo."

"How am I fucking...!" He started, indignant. Then he just cut himself off, done. "You know what, Franks? I cannot deal with this bullshit right now!"

Mini watched as he stormed off, tried not to get upset. It wasn't his fault. She'd fucked it too. He didn't fuck up at all when they were 'together'. She didn't blame him for giving up, and she didn't blame him now for not wanting to take Franky's criticism. She sniffed, controlled herself, and walked away. She'd completely forgotten Rich was there until he called after her.

"Mini?" She stopped, turned around, faced him. He actually looked uncomfortable, as though he was realising that he didn't really know the whole story, didn't really understand the whole thing. "I'm sorry... about the other night."

She blinked, not really understanding what he meant, until she remembered that smirk he gave her when he told her where to find Alo, knowing who she'd find him with. Then she shrugged. "S'okay."

Then she headed off to class, taking a detour to the loo. Breakfast wasn't sitting well.

* * *

><p>The good thing about exams is that once you start writing your answer, it's hard to lose focus. You just have to keep on writing your answer. Which makes them completely irrelevant to life, because nothing else operates in the same fashion.<p>

But at least it meant Mini didn't spend the whole time staring at the back of Alo's head, wondering why he hadn't written a single thing yet.

Alo was an easy person to read sometimes. You didn't even need to study his face, and Mini could read him easier than the textbooks they'd had to study for this exam. Whatever was preoccupying him so much his head wasn't in the same room, it wasn't great. At least he wasn't thinking about how fab the sex was with his pixie girl. If he was, he'd have seemed happier. Instead, he looked depressed.

It was easier to read his back than it was to read his face when he handed back her pen. He looked like... like looking at her, talking to her, was the first break he'd had from what was troubling him in a while.

And then he tensed up completely when the two men interrupted the exam. Kept turning his head to the door after she heard them say his name not quietly enough. And was out of his seat faster than she'd ever seen him move when they spotted him. _What the fuck_?

She'd wanted to get out of her seat when she saw him slammed down to the ground by the copper in the pink shirt, heard the click of handcuffs over his wrists, but was frozen stiff. Remained frozen when he turned to lock eyes with her as he was lead out. When he finally turned forward, it was the oddest thing; he practically lead the way, acceptingly.

_What the fuck have you done, Alo?_

Then it went all round the school. How, she had no idea. But she heard it everywhere. And then Doug confirmed it, before he realised that maybe he shouldn't have.

And then she just got mad. Because _what the fuck? What the fuck were you playing at, you stupid, retarded twat? How the fuck did you not ask this stupid bitch how old she was before you fucked her? How did you not realise that you were in fucking paedo territory there? __What the fuck were you doing fucking her anyway? What the fuck were you doing moving on? You fucked me up completely, you made me fucking pregnant, and then you picked that skank over me?_

_Why couldn't you have waited until I was ready? Instead of fucking up like this?_

She deleted him from her contacts on Facebook, and on Twitter. She even started going through his messages on her phone, but... there she finally calmed down enough to stop. Well, 'calmed down' wasn't the right phrase for it. Started crying was far more accurate.

_I forgot to say I no u were busy yesterday but cheers for coming round. It wasn't completely awful  
><em>_no worries, that's what I'm here for x_

_had a well nice time with ur lady bits and I think they enjoyed it too. round two tonight?  
>bleugh<br>that a no?  
>It's a bleugh. U figure it out<br>soooooooo….no right?  
>bleugh<em>

_ok I no u sed no to doing a sex 2nite but what if I were to tell u id just spent an hour researching back rubs on tinternet  
>id say go use that knowledge to rub ur self off as u continue to stay away from me... U still awake?<br>b there in five :)_

_I'm gonna come to yours to get ready for alex's party.  
>safe! Be there of be square, mcguinness. I'll be givin you the fun-times!<br>you'll be giving me the average._

__alright  
><em>__what dyo u want farmboy? Arent u supposed to be out having liv throw fannies at u  
><em>_I am and its great and I love it so there  
><em>_good  
><em>_good. Good night then_

She couldn't delete any of it. From the mundane party arranging stuff before they went to Morocco, to the booty calls after, to even the recent awkward shit they'd sent since they'd stopped sleeping together. And she definitely couldn't delete this:

_I lied. Im drunk and its horrible and no girl wants to talk to me and I want u to do that thing u do right now but u hate me cos im shit and ur amazing and I dunno how I fucked this up but I did and now im fucked up forever because all I want is u_

She'd already shed her tears over that message. And its continuance, which she tried to ignore as much as possible. She'd read it again far too many times, and she was reading it over and over again now too. He might as well have sent it only five minutes ago.

She wished she'd never deleted him from Facebook now. She just put down her phone, threw up because it inside didn't like it when she was upset, and curled up in bed, the duvet covers right up to her chin, and sobbed some more.

It was either that, staying in bed where she could be safe, or go to the police station to pick him up. Where she would only shout at him anyway.

_... I dunno how I fucked this up but I did and now im fucked up forever because all I want is u_

__... I dunno how I fucked this up but I did and now im fucked up forever because all I want is u__

___... I dunno how I fucked this up but I did and now im fucked up forever because all I want is u___

She didn't sleep well that night. But more on that later...

* * *

><p>The worst thing about being locked in a cell is that there is nothing to do but wait, a torture in itself for anyone. Particularly in a cell with nothing to distract the mind, no graffiti, no odd marks on the tiles, not even the odd bird outside the window or wayward fly. There is no writing on the wall, so you have to paint them with your own thoughts.<p>

And Alo had plenty to think about. He'd really fucked up. This time last year all he'd been doing was pushing his father's blood pressure to the brink. Now... now he was facing prison, an entry to the sex offenders' list, and the end of life as he knew it.

And he hadn't even grown up yet.

The funny thing about time that stretches on without seeming to have an end is that it can pass by remarkably quickly. Thank God. But without any way to measure it, without even events to mark it, it goes by without you noticing it, almost quite literally. Einstein was on to something: 'time is relative'. Well, he was probably right; Alo had no memory of anything between punching his fists over and over at the suffocating air of his prison cell and sinking into the corner to sob until he felt dead with it, to when the flap in the door dropped down.

"Aloysius Creevey, you have a visitor."

He wasn't sure who he was expecting just then. His mum, to give him a bollocking the likes of which he had never had before and would never have again? His dad, to quietly say, in his own way, that he was disappointed in him? Or Dewi, with something barely comprehensible? Rich?

For a moment, he kind of hoped it was Mini. Even if she was mad as hell with him, he'd have given anything he currently possessed, which was just his clothes and the blanket he had wrapped round him for comfort, to see her. He'd take her yelling, even her slapping him, over not seeing her at all.

Instead, Doug came in. About the last person he expected, really. "Hello, Aloysius. How are you, lad?"

Bless him. So formal in his much smarter suit compared to what he used to wear, now that he was Acting Principal in Professor Blood's compassionate leave, and yet as friendly as a puppy. But today it was forced, reluctant, as though Doug wished that he didn't have to be here, no doubt the bearer of bad news.

Which is why Alo had nothing to say to him. Doug sat himself down, awkwardly, the heels of his smart shoes echoing on the floor. "We've cleared out your locker. Most of it we had to confiscate," he said, pulling a green plastic bag out of his briefcase. Must have had to get rid of a lot, there was a lot of crap in Alo's locker. Not things that should be found either. "Or incinerate," Doug said, pointedly. A tiny part of Alo smiled gratefully. At least he wasn't going to get done for possession too then. "Here's the rest."

Not much. Alo pulled it all out of the bag. An examination answer's booklet, and his copy of Peter Pan. Not much.

"I think you know what I'm going to say," Doug said heavily. Alo looked up at him, horrified. _No... no, not again. Don't take college, the last normal thing in my life, from me_... "I'm sorry, Aloysius -" and he really did look sorry - "but we are suspending you from Roundview College, subject to further investigation."

"Doug, please," Alo pleaded quietly, his voice weak.

But Doug just shook his head, his face genuinely filled with regret. "It's out of my hands, Aloysius. They're saying you're a danger to children. Or in street parlance, a nonce."

"I'm not a nonce, alright!" Alo said, desperately.

"I know that," and he really seemed to mean it. "But technically you are." It wasn't helping, this lovely, nice man, who'd never hurt a fly, and always believed in them all so much, unlike the vast majority of his peers, when they'd done absolutely nothing to earn his faith, telling him these things. "Sorry. But chin up! You can bounce back. Get on that horse, and don't let the bastards grind you down." Then he seemed to realise what he'd said, and turned over his shoulder. "Not you! I didn't mean you!"

"Can you leave now please?" Alo said, his voice dead. Like anyone else who's just been shat on by life, he didn't believe he could just 'bounce back' from this. This wasn't the usual childish things that happened to people that they actually did bounce back from. This... this was different. This was very different.

This was part of the adult world.

"Yes... yes." Doug got up, went to the door, and turned back with one last encouragement. "Remember, lad: oggy, oggy, oggy! Yes?"

Which meant as little now as it had ever had. Alo flinched as the door was slammed shut once again, and he didn't pay attention as the guard had a go at his departing Principal. He was left, once more, to nothing more than his thoughts.

Having no idea what to think about regarding his future, with his name on the official paedos' list and so his early future over before it had even begun, he thought of other things. He thought of how stupid he'd been to let this happen in the first place.

He should never have taken Rich's advice, harmlessly meant, and pulled Poppy. Had he been so desperate that he'd never added up how weirdly, _childishly_ random she was, doing handstands, playing Wii in nothing but her underwear, and saying shit like 'monkey-fuck'? So what that she'd seemed older, seemed sixteen at least? Or... what was it she said? Having the grown-up menu at Pizza Hut? Fuck sake. He hadn't been lying when he told her that he didn't really like her all that much. She was cute and all - if she'd been the age he thought she was - but she wasn't... he couldn't put his finger on it.

Fuck sake. The only way he could think of the answer to that was to compare her with Mini. To think of what Mini had that Poppy didn't. Which was stupid, 'cos Mini...

Fuck it. Because Mini was awesome. When Mini was just Mini, and wasn't acting all Megabitch, she was absolutely awesome. Instead of being random, she was sharp, funny, and she didn't bullshit. The old Mini, the one with the 'perfect boyfriend' and 'perfect life', used to swim in bullshit. Since then, not so much. When she was just herself, she was easy to get on with, to the point where he'd been amazed. Even when they had their disagreements it was fun. There was no one like her.

Which was why he loved her.

_It's just not love if someone doesn't love you back._

Had he been right when he told Poppy that? It had felt right at the time. At the time it didn't even feel like he was just referring to her, to Poppy, either. So why did it feel like that wasn't right now?

When he ended things at the barn, what seemed like far too long ago, he'd honestly believed that she didn't really love him back, didn't really give a shit about him beyond what he gave to her. She couldn't say it, she couldn't tell him that she'd been lying at the club when she said she'd never wanted him at all. Words... it was all words and she had none but hateful ones. How much did they really add up to in the end? How much did they really count?

Was he right to believe that if she didn't have what it took to say that she loved him, she didn't have what it took to actually love him?

But, if he was wrong about that, and actions spoke louder than words, didn't finding out, when he'd been released, that she'd deleted him from Facebook say enough?


	14. Chapter 14

**Well, this was actually finished before the previous chapter, being far easier to write. Really happy with this actually. I hope it works out. It also worked out to be the longest chapter I've written so far, before I chopped the beginning into the end of the previous. Bleugh.**

**Can't wait for Monday... ;-)**

* * *

><p>That was the best threat he'd ever heard in his life. Even though it had been directed at him, and was thoroughly meant, Alo could still appreciate the thoroughness of it.<p>

"Dad! I... no one, Dad!"

"Hey, now you listen here you sick paedo fuck. You're going to jail."

"Hi, Mr Champion, if you'd kindly let me finishing speaking to Pop -"

"Now, I'm a God-fearing man, but I swear to baby Christ if that limp dick jumps out of your pants again, I will bite it off!"

"Mr Champion, I apologise, if there's anything -"

"I will bite off that cocky cock of yours. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, I can hear you."

"I will rape you in your prickless hole with your own dirty dick. I will rape you so fucking hard you'll wish you died as a child!"

"Okay..."

"Fuck you!"

And then it was over. Holy moly. "What did she say?"

That question sounded so utterly wrong. "No," he answered casually. "No, that was her dad, right? He wants to bite my dick off and rape me with it. So, you know, no biggie."

Thanks Rich. "So, that... it didn't go well then?"

No, no it didn't. "Come on, mate," Alo pleaded, almost conspiratorially. "Let's just leave!"

Rich's face said it all. "Oh, fucking great." Thanks for your support, Rich.

"Where are you going?" Rich called after him as he walked past, on his way out. "You can't just run away from this!"

"I can, Rich, yeah?" He retorted back. 'Cos honestly, what the fuck did he have left to stay for? "People say they can't run away from their problems, well, yeah, they just weren't running fast enough." And he walked away, and ignored his friend as he called after him.

But Rich never ran after him. He just stayed rooted where he was, uselessly.

* * *

><p>"Oh shit."<p>

Funny how adults had the uncanny ability to pop up in the most unexpected of places at the most unexpected of times. Maybe that was just part of being a grown-up, being able to find people that easily.

"Morning, bey."

"Alright, uncle Dewi? How'd you find me?" Alo asked, sitting himself down.

"When you weren't in the barn. Thought you'd be here." Right. That didn't really answer the 'how' bit. "Hear you messed up, partner."

"Yeah, I know." Understatement of the century.

"Hmm," Dewi agreed. He pulled a bundle out of his pocket; a cloth wrapped tight with string. "Well, I brought this for you." Alo unwrapped it, and his fingers stilled, touched, when he found its contents. "It's from your ma. She's worried about you."

She used to bake these buns for him when he was little, when she used to bug him that he was too skinny. It was a little too much to think about, imagining his mum baking this for him, knowing that he'd got into serious trouble, and hadn't come home.

"I'm running away, Dew," he told the old farm-hand soberly. He wasn't really sure how he'd expected Dewi to react, but to start chuckling wasn't quite what he had in mind. But it was more that he ignored him, more amused by Alo's book than what he'd said. "Not a fan, then?"

"Hmm." A man of incomprehensible sounds, old Dewi was. And then he did what Alo wasn't expecting again. He offered Alo the wisest thing he'd ever heard from the old man, indeed ever heard from anyone.

"The thing about Peter Pan is, bey, _he's a coward_. He had the chance of a lifetime, and he bottled it. Just fucked off back to Neverland. All alone forever, he was, by his own hand. Poor old Wendy, she had to grow old without him. Fucking tragedy, if you ask me."

His words echoed round Alo's head, resonating, ensuring that they would not be forgotten any time soon. He was a good man, old Dewi, and a much wiser man than Alo had ever given him credit for.

"Well, I suppose..." Dewi continued, fishing out notes from his pocket, counting them up. "You're old enough, and, well, you're ugly enough to make your own decisions. Or make your own mistakes." He offered the cash, maybe a hundred pounds or so, to Alo, who tok it in silence, suddenly not so certain he would need it. "That's all I have. It's up to you now, son. Stay or run." He nodded, about to leave. "Just look after yourself, eh, bey?" And then he was gone.

Alo chewed on his bun, almost angry at his own uncertainty now. He'd gone to sleep so sure that he wanted to disappear. Now...

Staying: His Mumgabe, back home, with Da and Dewi and Rags, ready with lists of chores and normalcy.

Run: Jail time.

Staying: Rich, and friends with laughs like Nick, Frankster, Liv and Alex the Whore Queens.

Run: Sex offenders list.

Staying: Mini...

Run: Mini...

Staying: Mini...

_Poor old Wendy, she had to grow old without him... Don't you get it? You two are like the only good thing to happen this entire crappy year. So stop fucking it, Alo... Get on that horse, and don't let the bastards grind you down!_

How long did it have to take to realise that the real fuck-up he'd made, the really seriously stupid decision that he'd made all on his own, was... was... shit.

He stood up slowly, finally swallowed his mouthful. Took another bite, chewed some more, just to give him enough time to really, _really_ think about what was consuming every fibre of his being. Nope, he really had been a fucking idiot. It took the whole bun, slowly and thoroughly chewed, to really examine every thought, every feeling, and know. Just know, with absolute certainty. Yep, he'd been a complete idiot. Not this though. This was going to be the smartest idiotic thing he'd probably ever do.

Good thing he did eat that bun. Because _fuck_, that hill was steep.

* * *

><p>She'd slept badly that night, not just from reading back old messages, but since her phone buzzing woke her up. Instinctively, at the sight of Alo's caller id, she rejected his call, putting him straight through to her voicemail after just a couple of rings. And then she'd stared at her phone endlessly, wondering whether she shouldn't have done that.<p>

Where was he? Was he... was he out? Was he back home? Was he safe? Was he calling her, in the dead of night, because he had no one else to call, or because she was the first person he wanted to call?

And why did it feel like she didn't really care what the answer to that last question was?

She didn't remember when she fell asleep, but she must have done, because she was woken by Franky with a cup of foul smelling tea, in a rather babyish look of her super-soft pink jumper and tiny shorts, and instead of saying 'good morning', Franky said, "Rich picked him up yesterday. He's on bail."

Mini turned over, and ignored her, wide awake. Franky sighed, and just started talking aloud, about how Alo must have not realised how young the pixie was, about how surely he wouldn't have done anything if he had known, that he was an idiot for sleeping with anyone anyway, but that she should let it go.

Mini just tightened her grip on the duvet cover, and waited for Franky to run out of steam.

An urgent - _very urgent _- knock at the front door made Mini sit upright with a jolt. She didn't even need to hear him call her name. _Of course_ it was Alo.

But she couldn't move. Franky couldn't move either, she was gobsmacked. She was just waiting for Mini to react. And all Mini could do was picture him outside, banging on the door, until finally he thought she wasn't in, turned, tugged on his hair as though ideas would spring out of his roots, and glance up at the house, looking for life, looking for clues. Sure enough, the knocking ceased and she heard him swear loudly. And then nothing...

Until the two girls heard him swearing as he tried to climb over the garden fence. "What the fuck is he...?"

Franky took one look at her, one look out the window where Alo had crashed on to the lawn, darted forward and heaved up the window.

"Franky! What the fuck are you doing?" Mini hissed at her, furious at her for intervening, panicking at this new opening. But Franky just seized her into a hug, whispered, "it'll all be alright!" And burrowed her way into the wardrobe just as Mini heard Alo swear some more as he started climbing up the wall to the now open window.

For a horrid moment Mini felt so exposed she didn't know what to do. She just stood there in the centre of her room, panicking, terrified of what was about to happen. Because she had _no fucking idea_ what was going to happen. But it was all going to change. No one climbed into anyone's bedroom to not change something.

And then there he was, tumbling through the drapes, crashed over her bedside table, and landed in a heap on the floor, panting with the exertion. "For fuck's sake, Farm Boy!" She exclaimed, her voice lighter than normal, almost laughing at the absurdity of it. "What are you playing at?"

He looked up at her, back at the window as though to see the length he'd gone to to get where he was, and started picking himself up. "Okay. Okay, okay."

He was there. He was really there. The stupid idiot who'd slept with someone else, a much _younger, illegally younger_, someone else after leaving her pregnant and alone. Now he was actually there, she was pissed off with him again. She had a fucking right to be pissed off with him. He'd fucked up, and it wasn't her fault this time. This was all his fucking doing.

"With a little hindsight, the whole breaking and entering does feel a bit excessive," he began, still trying to catch his breath back. "But, to be fair, I did knock and you didn't answer, which is kind of rude considering you're actually home."

"Maybe because I didn't want to speak to a child molester!" She retorted, shoving him punishingly.

"It was an accident!"

"_What! What? _You slipped, fell and molested a pre-teen girl?" She threw back, incredulous. How the fuck was it an accident?

"Don't say that..."

"I mean, you know, congratulations. You finally found a girl with the same mental age as you," she continued, on a roll. "But seriously, Alo, what is wrong with you?"

"_You're what's wrong with me!_" He yelled back. She shut up, stunned. She had no comeback to that. Then he took a step closer, and she instinctively stepped back, but not far enough. "I'm not just some lame Michael Cera. You can't treat me like a bitch and not expect me not to fall in love with you." Everything tightened. "It's not fair, Mini."

She swallowed, tried to hold it together, dug deep for her icy shield. "Who said I was in love with you?"

He actually flinched, raised his hands to his face as though to protect himself from her. From her cruel, spiteful words. "Don't... don't do that, okay? Don't revert back to Mean Girls McGuinnes bullshit, okay? I _hate_ that girl." Her eyes dropped from his face. She didn't blame him. She didn't like her either. But at least she stopped people from hurting her... right? "I want you." She couldn't look at him. She... she just couldn't. So she stared at the wall behind him. She felt less... exposed that way. But then he said... "I know you, Mini. I know you're afraid. You're terrified of being alone, but guess what? I'm not your dad."

If everything had been simple, 'happily ever after' would have started there and then. But life wasn't that simple. Even when you weren't pregnant, and the boy you loved wasn't in massive, massive trouble, life wasn't that simple. But if she hadn't been pregnant, she would have let herself burst into tears, and she would have let herself be won.

But...

"It's not that easy," she told him quietly. _How can I tell you now, and make everything even worse?_

"How?" He burst out incredulously. "How is it not that easy? I don't see what can be easier than just you and me." He stepped even closer, reaching out to her, probably to pull her into the warmth of his arms, but she backed off. She wasn't safe there. She couldn't tell him, she couldn't make things worse for him, not like this... she didn't have the guts. She was petrified that he'd realise he didn't want to be there telling her he loved her after all.

Confused, he frowned, worried. "What are you so afraid of?" He stepped closer again, reached out a hand to hold her face so she couldn't back off again, couldn't look away and turn into Megabitch again. "What... what is it?"

But then she ripped off his hand, and her voice shook as she spoke. "I want you to go, Alo."

He shook his head. "No." No. Even she didn't want him to go.

"Leave now," she pleaded, not even for her sake. "Get out." _Please, leave now whilst you don't have this shit weighing on you_. "Get out of my room! Get out! Get out of my room!" And she shoved him away, and he back off, his hands in the air, meaning no harm.

"Okay, okay, okay... I'll go." But he didn't move. So she went to the door, opened it, and held it open as he walked out, tried not to fall apart as she shut the door.

But then he turned back, slammed the door back open, and pulled up close to her. "I love you and I know you love me too. And when you're ready to admit that, you come and find me. Cos I'll be fucking waiting... however long it takes."

With that said, he then left. The moment he was out of the way of the door she slammed it shut as hard as possible, the last thing she could do to keep herself together, before she started crying when she sat on the edge of her bed. Franky tumbled out of the wardrobe - who knows how she ended up with a pair of Mini's knickers on her head? - and just watched sympathetically as her friend sobbed. "You have to tell him."

But she loved him. That would be like Wendy asking Peter to give up Neverland for her. How could she ask him to leave a world of wonder and magic, of childhood and freedom, for the real world of teenage parenthood?

What if he said no, and flew away?

* * *

><p>"<em>We're casting off... setting sail... three sheets to the wind, lads... aye aye, Captain<em>!"

"So, you're living in a playground now. Smart move, Farm Boy."

She was really there. He wasn't dreaming. His body still ached from the beating he'd deserved a took without a fight, telling him that his gorgeous girl really was standing over him. She was smiling as well. Things were always better when Mini was smiling. Particularly at him. "You look like shit," she informed him cheerfully.

"Yeah, well, you should see the other guy," he teased. He let a moment pass. "He's totally fine." And chuckled, and winced at his own joke.

She knelt down over him, still smiling. "Been looking for you everywhere."

"Why?" He asked guardedly.

"Just trying to make convo."

He laughed, kind of relieved that she wasn't gushing with words of affection and love eternal and shit. That wasn't Mini's way. This, just smiling and being light, this was her way of saying she was happy to be there with him. But his ribs hurt when he laughed, he really needed to stop that. "Come on, useless."

He coughed as he got up awkwardly, but took her hand to help step off his make-shift bed. As he stood before her she wound her arm round his back and lead him away. "Let's get you home." He matched her gentle pace, wound his arm round her too.

Was far too tempted... it had been a while...

"Alo."

"Yeah?"

"Hand off my arse."

"Don't be so fussy!"

She laughed, smiling so freely. She stopped, but didn't let go of him, bringing him round to face her. He thought, for one happy moment, that she was going to kiss him. Instead she did something - and later he would change his mind whether this was the right adjective - better; she hugged him. As though completely aware of where he'd been punched and kicked, she didn't knock any of his bruises; just wrapped her arms round him, held him as tight as she could without hurting him, and swayed lightly, her cheek against his, standing on her tiptoes. With complete relief he buried his face into her hair, stroked her back to remember how good she felt in his arms, and held on for as long as she let him.

He could kind of live without the sex. With difficulty, real difficulty, 'cos he was a bloke, with a dick, but he could. He could even live without snogging her. But he couldn't live without this, without being able to be this close to Mini. Life didn't _feel_ better than this. Now he felt like he was coming home.

Finally she pried herself away a little, just enough to see him in the streetlight. She took his face in her hands, and he placed his hands on her sides, waiting. But instead she suddenly smiled, sighed and shook her head. "Oh, you stupid sod. Always cleaning up your daft face, aren't I?" He chuckled, sighed contentedly as she ruffled his hair. "And yet your hair always looks perfect," she commented with bemusement.

He hugged her again, holding her tighter this time, ignoring the sting of his bruises, before letting her lead the way home again.

He picked stay.

* * *

><p>"I've really fucked it, haven't I?"<p>

"Yep."

It was actually quite impressive, when they both thought about it. So she said so. "To be fair, um... it is quite an achievement, to err... screw up so epically."

He chuckled. The whiskey was dulling the pain of the bruises now. "Cheers."

It had been a long walk to the Creevey abode, but, since he'd practically moved out of the main household and into the barn - ever since he realised a while ago how loud the floor creaked when they were... y'know - they didn't need to disturb anyone. Alo had a feeling that it wouldn't surprise anyone too much anyway. Dewi probably came back telling his ma that he'd be back. So now they were contentedly gazing out into the moonlit view, listening to owls hunt mice, or whatever else was going on in the dark.

Then he realised she'd been staring, about to say something. "What?"

She shook her head slightly. "Nothing, nothing..."

He studied her face, saw something sad, regretful even. "You were going to say I fucked up with you as well?" He shook his head, not denying it. "I fuck up everything, it's true."

He might have had a bit too much whiskey maybe. Because what she said was far more measured. And truthful. "I wasn't sure what I wanted."

"Yeah, well, you were... right not to be sure." Oddly that cheered him up. At least one of them was thinking straight... ish. "I'm just a fucking quarter bottle of disappointment, me, ain't I?"

She didn't agree. She couldn't agree.

Things were fixed now. They were better. If ever there was a time to tell him, it was now...

"If I had a... umm... a problem, like a really big problem and, err... Well, would you... would you... would help me? Would you, like stand by me?" She took a breath, having gushed everything out. _Just say 'of course'. Just say 'yes'._

He stared at her, growing more and more worried. Oh God... what was she going to say? "What? What is it?"

She took a deep breath, nodded slightly to herself. _Tell him. It'll be okay, tell him._

And then his blasted phone rang. And because he was a div and had the attention span of a fish, he answered instead of ignoring it. "Hello?"

Her heart sank. She couldn't keep this up, she couldn't hold on to bravery, not... not whilst she could hear who was on the other end of the call. "Alo? It's me."

He tensed. "I'm not supposed to be talking to you, am I?"

Nope, he really wasn't. More than he really knew. "I was just ringing to tell you that you kind of made my mum leave my dad."

Oh whoop-de-doo. She got up, too tired to try again once he finally had time for her again. "Oh, for fuck's sake."

"It's fine. He's a bit of a prick. Everyone knows it. But mum made him drop the charges." Mini started going down the ladder to leave, but looked back, hoping Alo would realise, would hang up. "And you're lovely. Whoever gets to be your girlfriend is lucky, 'cos you're lovely." She gave up waiting. He wasn't going to get it, was he? "Plus you've got a ginormous willy." She heard him laugh above her, making her wince slightly, and she set out into the dark. "Bye, Alo."

When he finally called her name, realising she was going, she was too tired to carry on talking, so she just waved back, and disappeared into the black.

Once in the absolute darkness however, she really wanted to cry. She was going to tell him. She was going to brave, and risk it all, and tell him. Why the fuck did this have to be so hard?

* * *

><p><em>Dont walk home in the dark, Mins. Come back, i'll drive u home in the morn x<em>

He waited for her to reappear, but she didn't. Eventually he sighed, realising that he wasn't any the wiser now, and went to bed. Rags, silly bugger that he was, did nothing more than raise his head and yawn before going back to sleep again. Nice to see you too pal.

He had no idea that Mini didn't get his text because she was calling Grace's voicemail.

"Grace, it's all just... ugh, it's all just _fucked_. What the fuck is wrong with me? I'm upset over the ginger-Farm-Boy-ninja, I can't tell him about the baby or anything, and if I tell him he'll freak and then he'll fuck off and then I'm stuck with a fucking kid... I _love_ him, Grace, I don't know why, but I... I do."

When she hung up, she suddenly felt so stupid. Or rather, the whole thing felt stupid. There she was, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, calling her dead friend's voicemail because she didn't know a single living person that she felt comfortable telling that all too. It was easier telling someone who _could not_ hear, than someone who just hadn't paid attention long enough to hear.

She read Alo's text, the light of her phone the only light she had, the trees over her head blocking the moon and stars above. She stared out into the dark, and then looked back. She could still make out the barn, though all that lit it up now was the moonlight. She felt very lost, unsure which way to go now.

Except... the only thing that she could see was the barn. The rest was all pitch-black darkness. She couldn't even get Google Map to work.

So she walked back, winced at the creak of the ladder in the dark, knowing he was listening. When she climbed into his bed, stripped out of her shoes and clothes bar her knickers and top, he was awake and immediately wound his arm round her under the covers, sighed at the familiar feeling of her at his side. She rested her head on his bare chest, tried not to cry at how good it felt to be back there again.

Three hearts beat in unison.


	15. Chapter 15

**My apologies, folks. Real Life... well... it got...**

**It got awesome, so I'm afraid I'm not remotely sorry for not writing. I was busy for fantastic reasons.**

* * *

><p>"So, friends; this is it. This is your moment. When everything you've been striving for, everything we've tried to teach, everything that your parents have dreamed of, that their lives finally add up to something. Now, it gets tested, in the crucible of academic excellence. Mr Sweetcheeks has your digital exam codes -"<p>

"You're all just numbers now," Mr Sweetcheeks interjected encouragingly.

"Ms Long has your personalised exam timetables," Doug continued.

"Um, I've got stripes, spots and diamonds," Josie said cheerfully, turning over her clipboard to show her own decorated timetable.

"She's tracking you personally. So you see, nothing can go wrong unless -"

"Unless you balls it up," Mr Sweetcheeks interrupted helpfully.

"I think perhaps that's not the right word, Simon," Doug admonished.

"Unless you fuck it up," Mr Sweetcheeks corrected.

Doug gawped like a fish for a second, and then attempted to recover. "Well, I guess we're all adults now. Promise me: promise me you're going to take it easy."

And that was why they all loved their current headmaster.

* * *

><p>Mini had a feeling she'd stopped being into all of this. She blamed not being able to drink. In the last ten minutes she'd had to feed the plant three drinks that smelt of the shit she could find in the science lab cupboard. One of them was still fizzing from some shit Liv had told her to party on. The plant stood no chance.<p>

Was it just the baby, or had she grown up? She wasn't really into this shit anymore. It was just a bit crap really. Nick and Franky were all over each other in one corner of the room, and Liv was dancing with Alex, who as usual was half naked, whilst some other half naked guy danced up behind her. Mini wasn't even sure who the other guy was interested in, the filling of the sandwich they had going there, or the other slice of bread. Either way when Liv called her to come over she couldn't help but think that dancing with the three of them was the last thing she wanted to do, that she couldn't think of a scenario at the party that would make her feel more uncomfortable.

And then she caught a glimpse of Alo getting high in a gas mask, and thought again.

She waved goodbye to Franky and Nick, went to go find Liv but saw her dash outside and heard her vomit loudly, Alex and his new 'friend' laughing, and so decided to skip the farewells. She'd see her just before their first exams, if Liv turned up to them.

She was already walking down the street, her jacket wrapped round her tight to keep out the chill, when she heard Alo's familiar footsteps behind her. "Mini?"

She stopped, turned around. "Alo, go back to the party, it's fine."

He blinked slowly, the gas mask sitting on top of his head, smoke still wafting out a little from the remains of... how had he turned it into a make-shift bong anyway?

"I'll walk you home."

"Alo..."

He shook his head, walked up to her side. "No objections tonight, McGuinness."

She smiled, didn't back away when he slung an arm round her shoulders, and fell into step with him. His hand on her shoulder moved down to rub her arm, as though sensing her goosebumps. Good thing boys were walking radiators.

They chatted about how they were going to miss the routine of skipping classes and smoking joints round the back of the humanities block. How they were going to miss the warmth of Doug's well-meaning, unobservant watch. Alo told her about how Doug had come to see him when he was arrested, and that he was going to remember 'oggy-oggy-oggy' whenever things looked absolutely hopeless, which, knowing Alo, was inevitable.

When they got to Mini's they stood outside on the steps awkwardly for a moment whilst Mini considered whether or not to send him home. In the end she took his hand, and pulled him inside. When he shut the front door behind them she waved a stern finger in front of his face. "You're sleeping on the floor."

So, that's what he did. And when Mini heard his breathing steady she waited a bit, thought about whether it was a good idea or not, and then slipped out of bed anyway, and curled up into his side.

She didn't know that he'd been faking his breathing, and that he was awake when she did that. He just waited until she actually was asleep before tucking her in better.

Mini woke after he did. He was playing with his phone with one hand, the other was drawing patterns on her shoulder, his own shoulder acting as her pillow. She was suddenly strongly reminded of Morocco, of him admitting to attempting to download his porn app onto the stolen iPhone. "Hey."

He stopped, looked down at her and smiled. "Hey." He put his phone down, returned his attention to her. And then frowned. "Please don't kick me out again..." he winced.

She smiled sleeply, and shook her head. "No, not yet."

He chuckled. "Okay. How long have I got until then?"

She snuggled into his side, murmured contentedly when he wrapped his other arm round her. "Dunno," she answered, making him chuckle again. "Until I wake up properly."

He grinned. "Then go back to sleep, Mins."

"Okay..." She felt his face split into another grin against her forehead. "Alo?"

"Hmm?"

She shifted a little, rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and settled into his side again. "Can you do me a favour?"

"Sure," he answered. Then he frowned. "Wait, let's hear the favour first."

"You just said 'sure'."

"No, I'm retracting the 'sure' until I've heard what the favour is."

"Well, you can't."

"Mini."

"Yeah?"

"What do you want me to do?"

She peered up at him. He looked half worried, half amused. "Whilst I'm revising, and whilst the exams are going on... I think it's best that we don't see each other." Then he just looked pained for a moment. "I need to focus, Alo. You're a bit distracting."

His face lit up a little. "Distracting in a good way?" If he'd had a tail, it would have been wagging. She couldn't help but smile up at him, or help but run her hand over his messy hair.

"Alright, I'll let you have that one," she teased, making him grin. "Yes, in a good way."

He leaned his head against her hand, and sighed. "But you still need to go and be a clever swot and ace your exams?"

"Yep."

He ran his hand over her cheek. "Okay." He thought for a moment. "Can I still text you?"

"Only if it's important."

"And Facebook?"

"Actually important, by the way."

"Twitter?"

"As in Armageddon serious."

"Skype?"

"As in not about Pokemon again."

"Pokemon's serious."

She just lightly batted at the side of his head.

"Okay, not about Pokemon again." He frowned suddenly, remembering something. "Speaking of important, what was that thing you wanted to tell me about, when we were at the barn?"

_Shit_. She froze. Now was the chance to tell him _everything_, even to tell him why she needed him to stop seeing her for the foreseeable future, given that she was swelling like a balloon already. _I'm having your baby. Just say it, just say I'm having your baby... fuck._

Instead she panicked, and did something that maybe was a bit stupid: she kissed him. Chastely, and softly, and a bit desperately. He reacted immediately, kissed her back, didn't even question it. He even moaned happily. When she pulled back he looked dazed, and silly. But mostly, just pretty darn happy. When his brain finally started working again, he looked less happy though. "We need to figure this out, Mini."

She sighed, and nodded. "Not right now though."

He studied her for a moment, and then conceded. "Alright. That's okay. But we do need to figure this out. And not after the exams. We both need to think for a bit, and then we need to talk. Otherwise I'm not going to be able to focus on my exams either."

"Were you going to focus on them anyway?"

He grinned. "Yes, but I was aiming for being my adorable C-average self."

She raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh."

He mocked indignation. "You saying I can't get Cs?"

"No, I was questioning the 'adorable' bit."

He pinched her sides lightly, making her giggle. But as the giggle subsided, it made the niggling paranoia rise to the surface. How in the world could he not notice when he pinched her? She rested her head on his chest, partly to listen to the sound of his heartbeat, partly just to hide her face from him. "Alo..."

He stroked her hair, and sighed. "Time to go?" She nodded. He took a deep breath. "Okay," he said, and slowly sat up. She lay back down at his side whilst he shuffled back into his trousers and buttoned up his shirt. Then he looked back at her again, smiled and kissed her again quickly, quickly enough so she couldn't push him away. "Good luck with the exams."

And then he was off.

* * *

><p>"Franks! Mate! Compadre! Hi."<p>

It was only a couple of hours and she bloody missed him already. The hormones weren't helping. She'd been snapping at Franky since she'd arrived, summoned because Mini really needed to stop hugging Alo's pillow just because it still smelt of him and it was one of the few smells that didn't make her vomit these days.

So whoever it was at the door... "Tell whoever it is to fuck off!" She yelled to the front door. She really didn't want to see anyone right now.

"Whoa... is she okay?" Whoever it was asked.

"Err, yeah," she heard Franky cover. "Just a bit stressy about the English exam."

"English! We need to get into that, Little Dorrit and all of it." Whoever it was sounded like they were bloody high. "Or... we could just get totally fucking wasted!"

"Who is it?" Mini asked, her patience at its limit, and she went to the door. Ah. Liv.

"Alright, Minerva?" What the fuck? Since when did Liv call her that? Only... only Alo called her that. Usually just to annoy her. "Remember me? I'm your best matey, Liv!"

Seriously, what the fuck? "Have you been drinking?"

"It's breakfast," Liv said perkily. "Malone-style."

"It's 10am."

"Yeah, so?" Ah, fantastic. Liv was on one of her self-destruct sequences, 'Malone-style'. "Let's get wasted on Brandon Hill, smoke a fatty!"

"Yeah, what about little bummer boy?" Mini asked.

Liv shrugged slightly. "He's away."

"Oh, so now you're back in my life? Is that how it works?" Mini said acidly. Whilst Liv struggled to come up with a response, Mini decided she'd had enough and went back inside. Never mind the hormones, that did piss her off. What did Liv expect? Things had been sour for months. She couldn't come back now that Alex had fucked off without her and expect that everything would be the way it used to be.

"That's not fair," she heard Liv say as she walked away, and ignored it. Who cared if it was fair? "What's up with her face?"

_What's up, Liv, is that I'm pregnant with Alo's baby and you weren't there to help me. That's what's up with my face_.

"Maybe just give it some time, yeah?" Franky said.

"Give what some time?" Liv asked, oblivious. "What's going on?"

"She'll talk to you when she's ready."

Mini heard Liv start to shuffle away, and then, as Franky started to shut the door, turned back, her tone sharper. "How's the rugby player?"

Mini raised her head from the kitchen table. What the fuck now?

"Nick doesn't play rugby anymore," Franky answered.

"What does he do? Go to Zach Braff movies with you? Like Matty?"

"Mostly we fuck," Franky retorted. And Mini frowned as Franky's face turned bitchy. "Says he's never really enjoyed it before." And then she shut the door in Liv's face, fuming.

Mini just stared at Franky. What the fuck? Since when was she so easily baited? That was pretty fucking low, given _all_ of their messy history with Nick.

She looked around her home, and at Franky standing in it. Suddenly she didn't feel so comfortable. "Come on, let's get to college."

"No, wait for that bitch to go first," Franky said sulkily.

Mini ignored her, and picked up her bag. "Fine. You do that. I'm going. You coming?"

Franky took a heated breath, let it out, and then grabbed her bag too and stormed out.

_Gracie, how did we all end up like this?_

* * *

><p>By the time they got to Roundview, Mini had calmed down, had found some centre of serenity in just walking. Franky, who she'd ignored the whole way, was fuming even more by the time they got there than when they left the house, her own thoughts very obviously not half as pleasant. All that was going through Mini's head was a small degree of appreciation that Liv had come back to her, no matter how clumsily.<p>

It was time to try to make amends.

Unfortunately, Liv's mood also seemed to have turned more sour by the time Mini found her. But at least when she realised that Mini was there, she didn't tell her to fuck off.

"Mr Hinkles is mine," Mini pointed out, smiling slightly. "What's he doing with you?"

"We've been having an affair."

Mini chuckled. Yeah, they were alright. "Look, I'm sorry about before," she said, and shrugged. "I was feeling sick."

"You've been hanging out with Franky a lot?" It was more of a statement than a question, although she could hear the silence 'why'.

"Yeah, but she's... you know, she's with Nick now. So, you know, they're doing a shitload of fucking and everything. It's romantic." Well, no, not really.

"Yeah... and you've got nothing to say about that?" Liv began. Dangerous territory... "How screwed that is? Whoring around all year?"

"I'm right here, you know!" Mini heard Franky say behind her, slamming the locker door shut. Mini didn't even flinch. Oh shit... "Clearing out my locker before I go whoring."

Mini stepped out the way, letting the two girls square off. This was not going to be good. "Am I the only one who dares speak to you about your bullshit?"

"Bullshit?" Franky closed her own locker, her face icy.

Even as Mini shrank away from the fight, she was surprised. Really? Franky had nothing to counter that?

Liv handed Mr Hinkles to her. "Yours..." and pointed to Franky. "... and yours." And started to walk away.

Mini started to sigh with relief, but then...

"You know, it's not my fault you're jealous!" Mini's head sprang up. What the fuck? Even Liv stopped and turned to stare at her incredulously. "Because Matty and Nick chose me!"

"Shit, no..." Mini started, but there was no point. Liv marched back, with a look on her face that Mini had seen plenty of times before. It was the one before she punched someone so hard in the balls that they were rendered incapable of having children.

"Like I said, nobody calls you out," Liv said right in Franky's face. "Nobody can say it."

"What? About what?" Mini shut her eyes. She knew what was coming. Liv wasn't the only one of have thought it...

"That Grace wouldn't be dead, if you hadn't been fucking over Matty and every other boy you get your hands on."

Mini did flinch when Franky slapped Liv. "Franky!" She said warningly. _Stop this. Stop this now_.

Liv just raised her head back up to stare Franky down, waiting for Franky to deny it. "Better out that in."

Instead of retorting to Liv, she spoke to Mini instead. "Just tell this stupid bitch what you're supposed to tell her." She narrowed her eyes at Mini, and shrugged as though she was indifferent. "Just tell her, okay?"

And walked off, leaving her in the crater. That wasn't cool, dropping her in the shit like that.

But, now that that was over, Liv took a breath and stepped in front of Mini, and waited.

So she started to just vomit it out. "I've been having sex with Alo and -"

"What?"

Mini breathed hard, struggling under the heat of the spotlight. "Yeah, err... with Alo, and -"

Liv interrupted again. "No! No, no, no, no, no..." She trailed off, her hands still up. "How long?"

"A few months," Mini admitted. "But we stopped, and -"

And Liv interrupted again. "No, stop there. Is this what it's all been about? You've been fucking Alo and you didn't tell me?"

Mini didn't really know entirely what she meant there, but there was more. "No, that's not it."

Liv almost flinched back. "Shut up."

She tried to say it. It wasn't just that Liv's words had actually shut her up. It was just... the words wouldn't come out. She wasn't brave enough to say it, no matter how hard she tried. And then Liv gave up waiting for her to get brave enough. "It doesn't matter." And walked away.

"Liv, I -" Mini called after her and then was silenced when Liv grabbed the locker door and started slamming it shit repeatedly, as though trying to rip it from its hinges, trying to break something. And then she stormed off, leaving Mini on her own.

Fuck. That wasn't how Mini imagined it paning out when she walked to college.

* * *

><p>"Truce?"<p>

She was in her room, in bed, the duvet tucked up to her chin, staring out of the window into the dark. It looked like a cold night, and she could just picture Liv on her own somewhere, so much tougher than the rest of the world, smoking a rollie and looking like she didn't give a fuck. Alo had sent her a text telling her that Liv needed her, that she'd thrown Rich's revision around the library and said things that made sense only to the fucked-up. He said that he knew Mini needed her space right now, but she had said he could contact her if it was important. And he was right. This was important.

"You should have told me about Alo."

_I know_. "I'm sorry." And she meant it. Liv had been her best friend forever. When they said sorry to each other, they meant it.

"No more secrets. I can't take it, okay?"

Mini froze. Shit. Alo was just the tip of the iceberg. They were all full of secrets. So she took a moment, and faked it. "Hey, you know what?"

"What?"

"Little Dorrit. I've never read it."

"No?"

"And I was hoping you could tell me what happens in it, cos we're doing our English A-levels tomorrow?" _Please Liv. Accept the olive branch._

"Sorry. Why not ask Franky?" This wasn't fair, being stuck in the middle between these two warring girls. She wasn't even sure what they were fighting over now. Was it the Levan brothers? Grace? What a fucking mess.

"Cos she wouldn't think it was funny."

And then they both chuckled down the phone to each other, finally sharing something. "I love you!" Mini sang, meaning it far more than her playful tone suggested.

She could picture Liv smiling at that before she hung up. Mini stared at her phone for a second, went through her messages.

And deleted Franky's so Alo's was at the top.

* * *

><p><em>Please come round x<em>

"McGuinness, I knew you couldn't resist..." Alo's cheeky grin slid off his face fast and his sentence trailed off. "Mini, what the fuck happened...?"

She was shaking, and she could barely look at him. It was a mistake to text him. But she'd done it so blindly, so instinctively she wasn't sure if she really did it or not.

After Liv had stumbled out of her house, sobbing and retching, after she'd yelled at Matty to stop staring and get the fuck out too, Franky finally came down from Mini's room where she'd been hiding. And Mini saw red. She yelled at Franky to get the fuck out of her house too, that Liv was right and it was all her fault that Matty had driven off that road and killed Gracie, that it was her fault that he had come here with Liv, that Liv had lost it and _no_, she didn't want Franky's help, _no_, she didn't want to sit down, _no_, she didn't want Franky to stay and could she please just _fuck off_.

When she was finally alone, she grabbed her phone, texted Alo, sat down on the stairs, and sobbed until he rang the doorbell. She didn't even wash the blood off her face.

And when she finally looked up at his face, and saw the horror there, she burst into tears again.

Alo had no idea what had happened. He couldn't even guess. He just held her tight as she sobbed into his shoulder, stroked her back, stroked her hair, told her again and again that everything was going to be okay. He sat her down on the stairs, grabbed a clean dishcloth from the kitchen, soaked it under the cold tap, came back and put his arm round her as he dabbed at the blood on her face until finally he found bruising and slap marks.

This was not a role reversal he ever expected to find himself in.

He tried to get her to tell him what happened. When she couldn't speak because she was so choked up from crying he tried guessing out loud so she could nod or shake her head. She just kept shaking her head. Eventually she put her hand over his mouth to silence him and hugged him until she had calmed down.

But even then she didn't tell him anything. She looked like she really wanted to. But for whatever reason, she couldn't. So he told her it was okay, and stayed with her. For once, they slept in her bed rather than on the floor.

She managed to say one thing before they went to sleep. "I think I aced the Little Dorrit exam this morning." It only made him hold her tighter.

And in the morning, she thanked him by making him Weetabix with candy floss with Panda Pops cola poured over it.


End file.
